Together Forever as the Owl and the Dove
by NumbuhWanTeddyBear
Summary: Romeo, Desiree, and Oliver go on a quest to rescue Romeo's dad from a blood-sucking monster. What will they encounter on their journey? Family secrets revealed? A romance that wasn't suppose to happen but did? 3 years after the HO series. (This was written before the release of The Mark of Athena)
1. Four Cups Of Coffee And A Prophecy

**DESIREE**

I'm sure you've heard the story of Percy Jackson and his life here at Camp Half-Blood. How he rescued the camp from invading monsters. How he saved the world from an evil titan trying to destroy it. How he also, for five years, just asked the girl of his dreams and one of his best friends, to be his girlfriend.

Our story, however, is going to be about demigods who are living a normal life in the mortal world but trying to hide their true identity in order to protect themselves from monsters and ancient beings.

My name is Desiree Juliet Jones. I have blond wavy hair, amber eyes, and I am a demigod. Yes, a demigod as in a child of a god or a Greek god to be specific. I am a daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Today is just an ordinary day at camp, the campers doing their chores for the day. Some of them are at the archery field and some are at the climbing wall for their training. If you were an ordinary person, you would wonder why there is lava on a climbing wall, but for a demigod, it's just for training purposes.

I am in Camp Half-Blood right now, which is the only safe place for demigods. You'd be surprised by how many kids there are at camp. Some of the kids here have been staying in the camp for a long time. Although there are some of them who prefer to come here during summer vacation and go back to their normal mortal lives during the whole school year. In my case, I started my stay here when I was thirteen. I also prefer to spend my vacation here and now that I'm fifteen, going to camp always makes me happy. Most of the campers are very friendly, except maybe the Ares cabin, but none of them are like me. You see, at camp, most of the kids came from just one godly parent and one mortal parent, but in my case, I'm not the only demigod in my family.

All of us in our family are demigods, I'm a demigod, and of course, my twin brother is also a demigod, my cousins are demigods, our parents are demigods, and even our grandmother's a demigod. Do you know why? Our grandmother was a daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. Her name was Elena Jones and she somehow gained the attraction of Apollo, the god of the sun, prophecies, music, and medicine. They had four children, a quadruplet, which to me was even amazing for a god. Their kids are Duane, Parker, Brooke and Giselle. My dad is Duane Jones and he works as a doctor at the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston. He has blond hair and hazel eyes. His charm on women got the attention of Aphrodite. They had two children, me and my twin brother, Adonis, who likes to be called Donny. He just looks like a guy version of me, which means he also has blond hair and amber eyes. My brother and I love performing music and arts. Our favorite activity at camp is the sing-along around the camp fire.

Our Uncle Parker is one of the best homicide detectives back in Boston. He has red hair but you can't really tell because it also looks blond and he also has light brown eyes. He got the attention of Athena because of how clever he is in solving a case. They had two kids, Precious, whom we all call Pré, and Preston. Both of them do home economic stuff. Pré loves to design clothing and shoes, while Preston loves to cook and eat. One time, he cooked the favorite food of all the campers. It was amazing because he did it in just one day and we'll never know how he did it. Pré on the other hand, is living a double life in the mortal world. Have you ever heard of the Precious Gem designer label? If you haven't, let me tell you. The Precious Gem label is one of the world's most sought clothing designs. These clothes show not just your favorite colors but also show off your personal style. The only mystery of this label is that nobody knows who the designer is. Well, I do know and so does the rest of my family. The designer is no other than the fabulous Pré Jones. Like all the children of Athena, Pré and Preston have gray eyes but they're the only kids in the cabin with red hair because the rest have blond hair. So you can obviously tell who they are.

Our Aunt Brooke is an inventor for Green Tech, a company that creates electronics using environmentally safe materials. She is the head of all the inventors in the company. She has very dark brown hair and dark chocolate brown eyes. Hephaestus, the god of fire, was impressed with her inventions and fancied her. Their kids, Blaine and Blaire, are also inventors and geniuses. Blaire has long black hair but, when it hits the light, it shines dark blue and her eyes are too. Blaine also has black hair but, if it hits the light, it looks purple. He also has one of the rare eye colors, violet. Blaire and Blaine are like a well-oiled train when they are working on a project. They just go for it without stopping and when they are on the go; their inventions just keep on coming. She does the blueprints and he does the building. Their best inventions are a hover car, time machine, teleportation device, and a multipurpose watch, just to name a few.

Our Aunt Giselle is a flight attendant. She has light brown hair and light brown eyes. We don't see her much but she always takes a break during the summer to be with us at camp. Since she's always on the go, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, met her in one of her flights and later developed a relationship. They had two kids, Grace and Gregg. Among my cousins, they're the sporty ones. Grace has dirty blond hair and has light green eyes. Gregg has light brown hair and grayish green eyes. She is in the track team and he is in the soccer team in school. They also like to play other sport that involves running, which are most of the sports. They like running because they acquired the ability of speed from their father.

Let me further explain why all of us are demigods. In our family history, it involved an oath to the River Styx. In a small island, in the Aegean Sea, my ancestor, Princess Adara vowed on the River Styx that all her descendants will be children of the gods. To stay loyal to that promise my ancestors followed where the gods are most powerful. They followed them from Rome to England until they reached North America. The oath that our family has kept for millennia was passed down orally. Unfortunately, some parts of the oath were misinterpreted or forgotten. This oath was never told by any of the ancient storytellers, which is a blessing in disguise because it is the only way that the whole family could keep it a secret until the present generation of demigods.

The oath never said we couldn't get married to anyone. It just said we need to produce demigods as children. In the ancient times, the promise was that we should bear a child by fifteen. But the current society has changed and it does not accept fifteen year olds to become parents. So, the gods decided to change fifteen to twenty-five. It's a good thing for my brother, my cousins and I because all of us are fifteen and we all agree we are not ready to be parents. I don't know how many of us are out there but I have a feeling we aren't the only family having this godly background.

Getting back to the story, it was actually the last night at camp and we were all at the campfire singing songs lead by the Apollo cabin. I finally convinced Chiron, the camp director, that we should sing some mortal songs that somehow refer to all us demigods. I love the sing-along. My brother and I are somehow the only people in the Aphrodite cabin that can carry a tune. Maybe it's because of our lineage. So it's really a good thing that all of the other Aphrodite kids are pretty and handsome.

All of us cousins know how to sing but I always notice every time I sing, people are mesmerized or possibly hypnotized. I know I'm a great singer but apparently people hear me as even better, which isn't so bad for my reputation. I know two girls in my cabin who can persuade people just by telling them what to do, which they call charm-speaking. But people around me get persuaded when I sing, so I guess you can call it charm-singing.

The next day, all of us were getting ready to leave. Usually it's not safe for demigods to be outside the camp borders because you'll be attacked by monsters. We have fought monsters before at camp but for fifteen years they have never attacked us in our homes in Boston. They never even attacked our parents when they were our age. Monsters don't seem to care about our family, which is fine by me. At least we can live a normal life. Most demigods are not so lucky. I heard plenty of stories about campers who get chased by monster when they get to camp. But the thing is, monsters usually don't attack children of Aphrodite but my cousins are more of a threat to them yet they still ignore them. I think this is part of our family oath but this part was probably one of those which were forgotten.

"Everybody ready?" my dad asked for the millionth time really making sure nothing was left behind.

"YES!" everybody groaned.

Uncle Parker asked my dad "Did you tell Chiron we're leaving now?"

My dad answered "Yes and he wishes us all a safe journey home." All of us got inside the vehicles that we brought and headed back home.

I missed being home. Although I love camp, it's nothing like sleeping in your own private room and no one to wrestle with just to use the bathroom.

I just had to say it "Home, sweet home." I was so tired that I skipped dinner and went to sleep.

The next day, I checked my calendar. It was only a week before school and the first day of my freshman year in Alexandrian High School. Thinking like an Aphrodite child, I wanted to go shopping for first day clothes. I called Blaire, Pré, and Grace if they wanted to come. They were all free today. I asked Grace if Aunt Giselle could drive us to the mall. She said she'd love to. I asked Donny if he wanted to come but he had plans with Gregg, Blaine, and Preston. So I just said okay and left him. I took a bath, got dressed and went downstairs. I ate a pop tart for my breakfast and watch TV in the living room while waiting for them to pick me up.

Later, I heard beeping outside so it must be them. I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. I greeted them when I got in the car. We talked and listened to music while driving to the mall.

When we finally got there, Aunt Giselle told us "Okay girls I'll leave you to your shopping. Meet me at the food court by noon. Got it?"

Grace replied "We got it mom."

"Okay sweetie, just be extremely careful of strangers. You'll never know what they really are." our aunt told us.

Then Blaire said "Don't worry Aunt Gigi, they usually ignore us. You should know. You four were only attacked at camp."

She sighed "Alright, you girls go on. Don't forget noon at the food court."

We got inside the mall and raided all the stores. All of us got awesome stuff. We decided to have a coffee break. Feeling generous today I asked them what they wanted. I went to the counter and saw a cute surfer dude with sandy blond hair taking my orders.

"Are you going to drink all of this?" he asked with a light hearted laugh.

"Um… no, actually it's for them." I pointed to my cousins.

"Well that's three orders for them. Now, what do you want?" he asked me.

"What would you recommend?" I said trying to flirt a little.

He took that as a challenge "Why don't I make you one of my specials, which I liked to call "Sprinkle of Sunshine."

"That sounds delicious! Why do you call it that?" I asked again.

He replied "It's actually a Mocha Latté with a dash of golden brown sugar and a sun cream design on the foam."

Then he started making the coffee. Then on the corner of my eye I saw a book of poetry behind the counter.

I asked him one more time "Do you read poetry?"

Then he answered with a smile "I do actually. Why, do you like poetry?" he asked.

"Poetry is fine for me but I prefer songs. It's still poetry but sung not said." I said to him.

Then he continued "I sometimes make my own. Do you want to hear one?" I replied "Sure." Then he recited:

_**Ten years hate, now ten years in love,**_

_**Together forever as the owl and the dove,**_

_**With four offspring lay peaceful as they rest,**_

_**While the sun shines, two rays on their nest.**_

"What do you think Desiree?" he asked me.

I was surprised. How did he know my name? I didn't even tell him. I guess he could tell what I was thinking. "If you're wondering how I knew your name, one of your friends said it when you were passing me by."

Then I said "Oh, you heard us talking? You must be a stalker!" I jokingly said. "They're actually my cousins."

He didn't look surprised "I didn't hear much and I can see the family resemblance."

Then he punched in the prices of the coffee and I handed him the money. I just realized that this guy reminded me of someone but I can't put my finger on it. So I just thanked him for the coffee and went back to the girls.

Then he called me "Hey! The poem I gave you? Remember it. Okay?"

Then I replied "Okay." Then I continued walking. I got to the table and gave the girls their drinks.

"Well that took a while. Having too much fun talking to coffee boy?" Pré said smirking.

"I did say I was feeling friendly today." I responded. We finished our drinks and continued shopping.

When I looked at my watch, it was almost noon. All of us went to the food court to find Aunt Giselle. We found her sitting in a booth. She apparently did a little shopping of her own. We ate lunch there and while we were eating, I couldn't help wonder why that cute surfer guy would let me remember that poem. I did remember the words and they also confused me. Ten years hate, now ten years in love? The only person I ever hated was a boy named Romeo Valentino. But if the whole line referred to him, I doubt that will ever happened. How could I start liking him, even more loving him? The thought of that made me disgusted. Together forever, the owl and the dove? Biologically, I don't think a dove and an owl can be together. But if this refers to two demigods, then the dove is a child of Aphrodite, which could also mean me. I wonder who the owl is. Am I going to have a relationship with a son of Athena? There are some cute boys in the cabin but none of them really seem like my type of guy. The last two lines made me a little more confused. Four offspring lay peaceful as they rest? Does that mean I'll have four children with the son of Athena? I had too many questions for that line. While the sun shines two rays on their nest? The sun is clearly Apollo and he will shine on both off us, thus, two rays on our nest. The two rays could be a connection to the oath. Does this mean I will bear two children with Apollo? Thinking about this grossed me out because my dad is a son of Apollo, so if Apollo is going to be the father of my two children, then my dad becomes my half-son and my children becomes his half siblings, which also means Apollo, being my original grandfather, becomes my husband, thus, my husband is my own grandpa. But I remembered the gods don't have mortal DNA so it doesn't count and I discarded that thought out of my head. Wait! Now I know why that boy looked so familiar. He looked like my dad in a younger version. The cute surfer dude was Apollo and he just gave me a sneak preview of my life in the future.

We went home after a long day of shopping. I said goodbye and went inside the house. Nobody was home yet, so I just went to my room to rest for a bit. I checked my calendar again. Just a few more days and school will start.


	2. Obedience Is My Middle Name

**ROMEO**

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only different legionnaire there is at Camp Jupiter. The reason why I'm different is that I could come and go. You see, I'm the only camper who can go in and out of camp without a quest and who lives a normal life outside. A camper going outside of camp is not safe, especially if that camper is a demigod. One step outside the camp borders, every monster from a hundred miles away can smell you and would likely want to eat you.

My name is Romeo Valentino and I am a demigod. How am I a demigod you ask? Then let me tell you. I am a demigod because I am a child of a Roman god and a mortal being. I am a child of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. I live in Boston but every summer and spring break I go to California to visit Camp Jupiter, a safe haven for all demigods around the world. I am fifteen years old and I've been visiting the camp for two years now. I have coal black hair and strikingly gray eyes as some people would point out. Some people think that I'm a Goth because of the way I dress. I just tell them that I really love black.

Since the day I was place on the front steps of my dad's house, I have not seen my immortal mother, thus, my dad is the only family member that I have ever known. My dad's name is Tony Valentino. He is the District Attorney of Boston. He was elected to be the DA because my dad is really good at his job. Somehow he has never lost a case and all his clients seem to be innocent. I'm just happy that his job pays him well because I have to fly from Massachusetts to California every end of school. I love my dad but he does not like talking about his past. Every time I ask him about our family history, he never says a thing about it.

In my first week at camp, I have come to know a few people. Some of them have actually grown up in the camp. Most of them have never even left the camp before. So I never thought that I was allowed to even leave the camp. Two years ago, a pack of magical wolves were outside my house to take me somewhere so I can start my training. I don't know how we got to California so fast but one thing's for sure this is where I'll be training.

The wolves sent me to a burned down house which was called the Wolf House. Inside, I was greeted by the biggest wolf I have ever seen. She was called Lupa, you know the shewolf that took care of Romulus and Remus. Anyway, at first I thought I couldn't survive the training. I'm not a very athletic guy. I was more of the artistic kind of guy than sporty. It's not that I don't like sports; it's just that I prefer painting, acting and singing, and photography. But somehow, I managed to stay alive. I tried my hardest not to show weakness in front of them. I've heard stories that wolves can sense fear. So I didn't want to risk it. If I show even the tiniest bit of weakness, I'll end up as an all you can eat buffet for the canines.

My training was completed and Lupa told me to go south to San Francisco and find the camp. Getting there was not a walk in the park. When you practice fighting monster with a dummy, it doesn't actually feel the same when you're fighting the actual thing. I momentarily forgot my training. Yet somehow a drama geek was able to get to camp with only a few cuts and bruises.

I was assigned to the third cohort in the twelfth legion. When I was in camp, I had the time of my life but I was starting to miss my dad. So I scheduled a private meeting with the two praetors, Reyna, the daughter of Bellona, and Jason, son of Jupiter.

Inside the room, Reyna asked "So Romeo why did you ask for this special meeting?"

"I'm actually going to asking both of you for permission." I answered her.

Then Jason asked "Permission for what?"

"Leaving the camp so I can visit my dad?" I said a little too fast.

Reyna's automaton hounds were staring at me which did not make me any less uncomfortable.

Then Jason asked "Why do you want to go back home? It's safer if you stay here."

Jason did have a point. I am safer if I stay at camp but then I thought of my dad all alone in our house waiting and wondering if I'll ever go back home.

I said to Jason "I know if I stay here I'm safe but I just can't stand thinking about my dad who doesn't know if I'll ever be coming back. He's the only family I got." Then I added. "I apologize if this is too personal but wouldn't you do anything just to see if your sisters are okay."

Both of them said "How did you —?"

I cut them off "A lot of people talk during muster."

Then Jason responded "Okay, I admit sometimes I do wish I could see my sister just to see if she's fine."

Then Reyna spoke "I do agree with Jason. I'd give anything to see how my sister is doing."

"So… are you giving me permission?" I asked a little hopeful.

"First we need to know if you have any plans of coming back." Reyna said.

Jason added "We're just making sure that you won't leave camp permanently."

I knew they were going to say that. That's why I came prepared.

"I actually do have a plan. Every summer and spring break I'll go to camp. During Christmas break I'll be with my dad. I also planned on continuing school, just middle school and high school. When I graduate, I'll go to college here." I said ending my terms there.

They turned around to discuss their decision more privately. Then they turned back around.

Then Reyna said "Alright we accept your terms but we need to know when you leave because you just can't leave directly."

"I'll be leaving by the last week of August." I said officially.

The meeting was over and I went out of their office to do the rest of my activities. Two years later and I'm still following the promise I gave the two praetors.

I just got out of Logan International Airport in Boston. I saw my dad wave at me. I went up to him and he helped me with my bags. We got in the car and we both laughed.

"I missed you buddy." My dad said.

I answered him "I missed you too dad."

He started the engine and we left the airport. We were talking about camp on our way home.

"Well some campers are still a little jealous about my privilege of going in and out of camp."

"I wished you'd stay home. Every time you're at camp, I don't know what to think. I don't know if you'll come home alive or I'll get a message from one of your campmates that you died during a war with a bunch of monsters or something like that. I feel like a military wife every time you leave."

"Dad, first off, we're not married, which would be gross. Second, I'll always come home alive. I promise you that."

"Don't promise me. Life can be unpredictable and with your life, you'll never know that you just ate your last meal."

"Dad, you're being over dramatic. Have you been watching soap operas while I was gone?"

"I'm just saying. You're my son and I don't want anything to happen to you… And no I haven't been watching soap operas." We continued talking until we got home.

I missed my bed. I don't mind sleeping in a room filled with other people, but it's not as quiet. I was so tired I completely blacked out and went directly to sleep. The next day, I woke up from a knock on my door.

My dad came in and greeted me "Good morning sleepy head. I just came in to tell you I'm leaving for work now. But first things first, school starts in a week and you need to buy some school supplies. Unless you have a computer for a brain and can save everything the teacher says in your head."

I sat up and stretched "Don't worry, after breakfast I'll go to the mall and buy some stuff for school. I'll even let Oliver tag along."

My dad looked at his watch. "I better get going. Don't forget, okay?"

"Okay, now go or you'll be late for work."

"Bye, Romeo."

"Bye, dad."

I got out of bed and got dressed. I went down stairs and made myself breakfast. After breakfast I called my best friend Oliver. His whole name is Oliver Bush and no he is not related to the former president. He has been my best friend since I was twelve. He's in my grade but he was held back a couple of years so he was a few years older than me. He's slightly shorter than me and he has a mop of brown hair on top of his head. He really loves hats too. It's like there's one hat for each day of the year and one extra for leap year. He also has this weird limp. I asked him how he got it and he just said he was born with it. One more thing, if you dare him to eat something, he will eat something. One time a bully told him to eat a soda can and he did. He didn't even have any problems after that. Maybe he had a super stomach or something.

So I called him up and asked if he would go to the mall with me and that he could drive us. Even with his limp, he still managed to get an A+ on his driving test. I waited for him to pick me up. When I saw his car I went outside and got in. On our way to the mall, we talked about our summer. He told me that he went to New York this summer.

"Cool man. Was it your first time there?" I asked him.

"I've actually been there a couple of times before. I'd wish you'd come with me and not go to California every year." he said to me.

"Sorry but I can't. I promised my dad I'll go there every year." I reminded him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, there's a camp for the arts there and I've been there for two years, I can't just bail now." I didn't dare tell him it was actually a camp for demigods.

"Fine, have it your way then." he said.

We finally got to the mall. We went to a bunch of stores and bought some stuff for school like my dad told me. We went to some clothing stores just to check out some t-shirts. I couldn't decide on a shirt. Then an employee saw my problem and helped me out.

"Have you decided yet?" she asked.

She had a look that reminded me of someone. She had blond hair with bright yellow eyes. She was also a little taller than me and across her face was a dazzling smile. She should have been on toothpaste commercials or something.

She showed me a couple of shirts but none of them looked that good. She showed me a pink shirt that had this weird picture in the front. It showed an owl plus a dove with a huge heart around them with the words forever on top. Why did they make a shirt like that for guys?

"You don't like it do you. You're probably right. It does look silly if you wear it. How about this?" she took me to a display in the middle of the store.

She showed me a whole collection of clothes that a mannequin wore. Beside its feet was a pair of black and grey checkered Vans. Then on its legs was a pair of black jeans. On its top, it wore a plain dark grey t-shirt with a form fitting black leather jacket. It was also wearing a pair of cool aviator shades too.

"It's perfect." I told her.

She took it off the mannequin and brought it to the counter. Oliver came up to me and brought a pair of cargo pants. When he saw the salesgirl who helped me, it looked like he almost peed in his pants. It was like he was hypnotized by the way she looked at him.

"Dude, are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he said when she walked away.

We paid for the clothes and went out the store to eat lunch. We went to the food court. Then I saw her in one of the booths with her family, Desiree Jones.

"Man, I can't believe she's here." I said.

Oliver never got why me and her have such bad chemistry.

"Dude, I don't get it. How does a hot chick like that make you so mad? I'd rather you date her." he said.

"Please, don't refer to her as hot. You'll just ruin my appetite. And our bad blood for each other… it's a really long story." I said to him.

"Can you at least tell me when it started." he asked me.

I answered him casually "Kindergarten."

He looked surprised "Wow."

I also said casually "Yeah, wow"

Then he said "Well it your loss man."

Now I was the one who's surprised. "How is it my loss?"

"I'm just saying man, with the way she looks and her talents, she'd quickly go to popular status in two second flat." He said matter-of-factly.

"Whatever man, I will never, I repeat never, will ever like that girl even if I lose my virginity with her." I said.

We finally ate and joked around for a bit. We played a few arcade games before going home. He dropped me off and left.

When I got in, I called out for my dad "Dad, you here? I'm home!"

No answer. He must be working late tonight. So I went to the living room to watch TV. After a few hours our car stop in the drive way. My dad went in and saw me watching TV.

"Hey, your home." he said.

"Yes I am." I replied.

In his hand, he was carrying my favorite dinner, Chinese food. Actually my dad can afford a personal cook. But with my life, it was better we eat takeout food then let a stranger cook for us who might not even be human. We placed them on the dining table and we started eating.

After dinner, I told my dad goodnight and I went to my room. I wasn't sleepy yet so I turned my computer on and played a few combat games. When I noticed it was getting late, I turned the computer off and got ready for bed. I lay down on my bed and I looked at my calendar. It just reminded me that school would be just in one week.


	3. Performing With Him Is Not On The List

**DESIREE**

A week has passed and it's finally the first day of school. For most of the students, they're returning to school. For me and a couple of other students, we're returning to school and starting our first day of high school. Now high school is a very important part of a teenager's life. As for me, I just like school. For some demigods school would be at the bottom of their "To Do List". This is so because most demigods are dyslexic or have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. My family does not have a problem with dyslexia. Since we've been following the gods from country to country, we've learned the country's language. That trait was passed down from generations to generations. So I can actually speak a number of ancient and modern languages and I'm not that bad at reading or writing with it either. I'm not sure if I have ADHD but I don't like to stay put a lot though. That's why I love classes that are very active and we could move around a lot.

This may be the reason why I love theater. We keep moving and doing all these actions around the stage. Sure, sports are active and you also have to move a lot, but I don't like sweating. It feels sticky on my skin and it just feels so gross. Not that there's anything wrong with sports, I just don't like the sweating part. Now, the theater is where I really belong. Most girls don't like me because I always get the lead in every school play. I just can't help myself. When I'm performing, I feel like I'm in another world. It's like anything can happen on the stage, just me and the spotlight. The school bell brought me back to reality and reminded me that I am already at the front steps of the school.

Everyday of school, Donny and I love to dress properly. For the first day, he was wearing a yellow shirt with a big circle around a capital A in the middle printed on it, also known as the anarchy symbol, and a black vest over his shirt. He was also wearing black skinny jeans and a pair of classic black Chuck Taylors. He also wore a black leather flat cap in reverse with two gold stripes on the left side on his head. His look is never really complete unless there's at least a hat on his head. I, on the other hand, was wearing a light yellow floral dress with a flowing skirt and a tan-colored leather jacket that covers my upper torso. I also wore a pair of tall tan boot that absolutely was the icing on the cake.

"You kids have a great time now. See you after school," dad told us.

We waved at him goodbye and he drove off. Donny and I climbed the steps and went through the front doors.

"Can you believe it? We're in high school." He said like it was a dream.

We were walking down the hall, and then on one of the walls there was a poster for auditions for the drama club after school.

"We should totally enter." I told my brother.

"Most definitely." he replied.

We kept going through hallways until we found our room. What excited me more than our first day was our homeroom advisor. He was the drama and music teacher, and he is also the advisor for the drama club. I did a happy clap inside my head and went inside the room to find a seat. My whole day could have been perfect if it weren't for him.

My whole day was ruined because he had to be in the same class as I was. He or should I say it was Romeo Valentino. He has been the gum under my shoe that won't come off for the last ten years. It all started back in kindergarten. It was art class and I was painting a pretty butterfly. He also decide to do a painting himself but not with a paintbrush but with my hair. I used to wear my hair in braided pigtails and he thought it was funny to use it as a brush because it looked like one. I screamed and the teacher gave him a time out. I wasn't contented with his punishment and I planned to make my own. So during naptime when everyone was asleep, even our teacher, I took a juice box out of my lunchbox and poured it on his mat and I went back to mine.

When everyone woke up, I pointed at him a yelled "Ew! Romeo peed on his mat!"

He started crying and I was happy of his embarrassment. This is the reason why we hated each other so much for such a very long time.

I looked around the room to see if there were seats that were far away from me. Just my luck the only seat available was the one right beside me. I looked at his expression and he wasn't so thrilled either.

"Apparently this is the only seat left." he said.

I didn't pay him much attention. I just ignored him and pretended that he did not exist. It was kind of hard to do it because he kept staring right at me, which made me a little uncomfortable.

I was really getting annoyed now, "What is your problem? Stop staring at me. It's weird."

Then our teacher finally came in, which snapped him back to reality.

Our teacher introduced himself as Mr. Harding. "I would like to officially welcome all the freshmen to Alexandrian High School."

At the back someone raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr.…?" He acknowledged the student.

"Brice Walters. Why is the school called Alexandrian? Aren't most school named after American historical icons?" Brice asked.

Mr. Harding responded "I was actually getting there. The founder of the school, Jonathan Michaels, named the school after his favorite historical icon Alexander the Great. He had a chance to visit the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The city was of course named after the conqueror. He never forgot his visit and when he was building this school he wanted to name the school after the city to feel a connection with his icon. Does that answer your question, Brice?"

"Yes it does." He said.

"Alright, why don't we do a little stretching activity? Come on everybody stand up." He said encouragingly.

Most of us were reluctant to stand but did anyway. We did a couple of gesture which made no sense to me until he started reciting the "chant". It was actually a fancy way of doing "I Have Two Hand". We took our seats and Mr. Harding was just saying a few announcements. There will be a pep rally for all the freshmen this coming Friday and apparently the homecoming dance was going to be next Saturday. I wonder who will ask me out.

The bell rang and all of us went out of the room. Remember when I said I love school. Right now, it did not like me. It seems that the school purposely wanted me to lose my head. In all my classes he was in all of them. The worst was that we were lab partners in science class.

Just before my head would explode, the last bell finally rang and school was over. All I had to do was to get in the drama club and my whole day would not be a complete bust. I found the auditorium and saw that my brother was already there. I went to him and sat on the chair beside him. There were also a couple of other people too. The auditorium wasn't very full but it wasn't that empty either. There were at least twenty people there. So that's a good start for the year. Just when everything was going well, he had to ruin it again. He was sitting at the very corner of the auditorium. So I was glad that he won't bother me. Then Mr. Harding appeared on stage.

"Welcome dramatic and musical enthusiasts to the auditions for the drama club." He greeted us graciously. We all clapped.

"Now, everyone has signed in right? Good. This audition will be a little different. I will pass pieces of paper with a few lines for the monologues or dialogues and lyrics for the song you will sing. I'll give you a couple of minutes to memorize everything on that piece of paper and I'll call the titles of your songs at random. You will either perform alone or with a partner." He said explaining what we were going to do.

He passed the pieces of paper around. I was sad to know I was not going to sing with Donny but it will be an experience not to sing with him. I looked at the title of my song. It was "Elephant Love Medley" from Moulin Rouge. I have actually memorized the words and the song before and I am certain that this song is a duet.

During the practice, I kept wondering who I'll be performing with. I was hoping really hard that it won't be Romeo. I noticed that most people were really concentrating on their piece. So I decided to read mine for a bit. I haven't sung this song for a while so it was for my best to familiarize myself with it again. After a couple more minutes, Mr. Harding announced that he will now start the auditions.

The audition started and the first few who auditioned were great. I just kept wishing that Mr. Harding would call Romeo's name because I was starting to get nervous. I'm not usually nervous to perform but if I do it with him, I don't know what will happen. A couple more people performed and still no Romeo on stage. I was slightly hyperventilating now. Next were my brother and some other girl. He did an amazing job but I wasn't really concentrating. I just kept looking at Romeo's direction. Donny and the girl were done performing and Mr. Harding stood up and announced the last song. It was my song. I stood up and my worst nightmares were coming true. He also stood up and I thought I was about to faint. I didn't want to make a scene so I sucked it up and just concentrated with my performance. I didn't want to care that it was him. I just want to get this over with as soon as possible.

We stared at each other from disbelief.

Then Mr. Harding said "You can start any time now."

Romeo started his dialogue "Love is a many splendid thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love."

Then I started mine. "Please don't start that again. "

Then we just continued the rest through song and dialogue.

_**All**__**you need is love**___

"A girl has got to eat."

_**All you need is love**___

"Or she'll end up on the street."

_**All you need is love…**___

_**Love is just a game**___

_**I was made for loving you baby; you were made for loving me**___

_**The only way of loving me baby is to pay a lovely fee**___

_**Just one night, just one night**_

_**There's no way, 'cause you can't pay**_

_**In the name of love, one night in the name of love**_

_**You crazy fool, I won't give into you**___

_**Don't leave me this way**_

_**I can't survive without your sweet love**_

_**Oh baby, don't leave me this way**___

_**You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs**___

_**Well I look around me and I see it isn't so, no**___

_**Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs**___

_**Well what's wrong with that?**_

_**I'd like to know, 'cause here I go again.**_

_**Love lifts us up where we belong**___

He really did climb up the bars where the lights were attached just to help me in my dialogue.

"What are you —? Get down from there."

_**Where eagles fly, on a mountain high**___

"Oh my gosh."

_**Love makes us act like we are fools. **_

_**Throw our lives away for one happy day**___

_**We could be heroes just for one day**___

Then he jumped off back on the stage.

I continued with my dialogue "You, you will be me."

So did he "No I won't."

"And I, I'll drink all the time."

_**We should be lovers**___

I felt uncomfortable when he sang that. It was like he was really suggesting it.

_**We can't do that**___

_**We should be lovers and that's a fact**___

_**Though nothing would keep us together**___

_**We could steal time…**___

…_**just for one day**___

Our voices started to blend and I have to say they fit perfectly together.

_**We could be heroes forever and ever**_

_**We could be heroes forever and ever**_

_**We could be heroes…**___

Then the most powerful part of the song started. I know it's just a song, but in that part, I felt a tingle in my stomach. Not to mention this part is a Whitney Houston song and the ending was Elton John. We had to sing it responsively.

_**Just because I, I will always love you**___

_**I, I can't help loving…**___

…_**you**___

_**How wonderful life is…**___

Then we started blending again.

…_**now you're in the world**___

While the song was ending, I had the strange urge to kiss him. I don't know why. It wasn't like me to feel that way for him. Maybe it's just because of the song and how powerful the message of love is in it. I really don't know. So that I won't feel embarrassed and surprise everyone, even him, I walked off the stage in haste. I did hear an explosive applause and I think I heard Mr. Harding crying, but I kept walking until I sat back down next to my brother.

Mr. Harding went back on stage and said "Well those were all brilliant performances. I will post the result tomorrow on the bulletin board." Then we all left.

Our dad picked us up because it was kind of late and he doesn't want us to walk home in the dark. We got in at the back and he drove off. He asked us about the auditions but I wasn't in the mood to talk. I had so many things going on inside my head. But Donny wasn't as boggled as I was.

"It was great." he said

I just said "It was fine I guess."

"Are you alright sweetheart?" my dad asked concerned.

Then Donny spoke up "I think we should talk about it when we get home."

When we got home, we went inside and I walked directly to my room. I sat on my bed and replayed everything that happened. I kept repeating in my head the way he looked at me when the song was ending. It was like he had the strange feeling to kiss me too. I didn't want to think about that. Then somehow there was this odd thing on his eyes. When I was looking straight in his eyes, I saw this twinkle. Why would there be a twinkle on his eyes? If he was a cartoon that would make sense but he was real and that would technically be physically impossible. I just tried to forget it.

Then my dad called, "Desiree can you help set the table?"

I went downstairs to help. I wanted to do something that will distract me from my thoughts.


	4. A Twinkle In Her Eyes

**ROMEO**

I was woken up by a loud buzzing noise on my bed side table.

"Five more minutes." I whined, trying to get my alarm clock to go to snooze mode.

Then my dad walked in, turned off my alarm clock and officially woke me up. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty, it's the first day of school and we don't want you to be late now, would we?"

"No." I replied getting up.

"Breakfast is already on the table. I'll just get some stuff ready for work and I'll drive you to school." my dad said.

"No, dad, its fine, Oliver is driving me and besides your almost late. If you drive me you'll really be late for work. But you could pick me up after school. I'll just call you." I said.

"Okay then, I better be off to work. See you after school." My dad left my room and I got ready for school.

After taking a bath, I wore the clothes I bought a week ago. I walked in front of my mirror just to admire how awesome I looked. I went downstairs just as my dad drove off. He was right; breakfast was already on the table. I ate and after I put my plates in the dishwasher. I got my things ready for school when Oliver went in.

"Hey man, ready for school?" he greeted me.

"Well good morning to you too." I said irritated that he just barged in.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go to our first day of high school." I said calmly

We got in his car and went to school. I'm not a very good student when it comes to academics. I have a hard time reading maybe because I have dyslexia. The only class that I'm good at was Latin maybe because demigods are hardwired to be really good at Latin. But when it comes to reading English, it just gives me a headache. If it wasn't really for my dad, I probably would be help back countless of times. Now I'm starting high school and I'm both ecstatic and horrified at the same time. Ecstatic because I can't believe I graduated middle school and passed to go to high school. Horrified because I have no idea how I'll survive. Sure I've survived being attacked by monsters but this is different. The only monsters you'll face in high school are strict teachers, mean girls, dumb jocks and low life bullies.

We finally made it to Alexandrian High School. We go out of the car and just as I expected a bunch of girls were staring at me. Ever since this vampire fad showed up, a lot of girls think I'm a vampire. Sure I have pale skin and yes, I may be slightly taller than other guys. My hair may be as dark as the darkest night and my eyes are strikingly bright for gray. It does not mean I'm a vampire. I have never read the books or saw the movies but I have seen the trailers. If I was a vampire, why isn't my skin shimmering with diamond when the sun hits me? The only plus side I get from this is that a lot of girls flirt with me. Though none of them are my type, it's just fun how try to get my attention. It used to be funny. Now it's just irritating.

I've never dated any of them, though they really want to date me just because of how I look. It was kind of a shallow reason just to date me. I want to date someone who likes the things I do not because I could be related to a fantasized fictional character from a popular book who sucks blood out of his girlfriend's neck. I tried to ignore them but their stares just go right through you.

Oliver and I went through the school doors. One brave girl, who wore the movie t-shirt, approached me and asked "How did you do that?"

"What, walking through a door?" I said pointing out that her question was stupid.

"Yeah, shouldn't a person ask you in? Me and a couple of my friends were willing to do it." She said which made her sound ever dumber.

"Look, don't do this to yourselves. You can do much better with your lives. But let me ask you this. I was under the sun for a while just standing by the door. Now why wasn't I shimmering diamond?" that finally shut her up.

I walked away and left her thinking.

"Man that has to be annoying?" Oliver said.

"Believe me, that wasn't the worst. There was this one time a girl actually asked me to bite her on the neck." I said.

After a few minutes walking, we found out we weren't in the same homeroom. We said goodbye and I went to my class. I finally found it just as the bell rang. I was looking around to see if there were any empty seats left and the only one left was the one beside her.

Desiree Jones has been the stain on my shirt since we met in kindergarten. This is the reason why I hate her so much. It was art class and I wanted to paint. I couldn't find any brushes. Then I found one hanging from her head. I knew it was her hair but I thought she didn't mind until she screamed. Our teacher saw what I was doing and gave me a time out. Desiree still wasn't happy and she took matters into her own hands. While we were sleeping she poured like some liquid on me. When we woke up I thought I peed and so I cried. Then I saw her smiling at the back. She may be kind and sweet on the outside but in the inside she's devious.

"Apparently this is the only seat left." I said to her like I cared which I kind of did.

I really did not want to sit next to her and by the way she's giving me the cold shoulder, she's not too happy either. There was something different with her. I have to say puberty has been good to Little Miss Perfect. I couldn't' help but look at her.

I guess she was getting annoyed because she sort of screamed at me "What is your problem? Stop staring at me. It's weird."

Then our teacher came in and I was snapped back to my senses. He welcomed the freshmen to the school. Then one of the students named Brice Walters raised his hand. He asked why the school was named Alexandrian. Our teacher, Mr. Harding, answered him in a way a history teacher would say even though he's the drama and music teacher. Then he made us all stand and let us do weird movements with our body. When he started speaking the "chant", I realized it was a weird way of singing "I Have Two Hands".

After the freaky dance/tai chi, Mr. Harding gave a few announcements. There was a pep rally this Friday. I don't get pep rallies. They try to cheer for people but not all students are peppy. The homecoming dance was next Saturday. Now I know I won't be attending. Then the bell finally rang.

I went out of the classroom to get to my next one. Here's what happened in the rest of my classes. I may not be that into school but come on does it have to make it worst. In each and every class Desiree was there. She was everywhere. Not to mention that she's also my lab partner. This officially sucked.

Right before I was going to lose it, the bell rang. I went out and race to find the auditorium. Early that morning I saw a poster for auditions to join the drama club and I said what the heck. I finally found the auditorium. I went inside and sat at the far right of the stage. I didn't want anyone to bug me and nobody did thank you very much.

Mr. Harding was greeting everyone on the stage. He gave instructions for the auditions. It wasn't too complicated. All we had to do was memorize a couple of lines and a song from a piece of paper. The only difficult part was whether you'll sing a solo or a duet. Singing solo is no problem for me; at least I'm more confident. If I sing a duet, I might not know what will happen.

I looked at my sheet of paper and read the title "Elephant Love Medley from Moulin Rouge."

I have actually seen the movie a couple of times and this was one of my favorite scenes but I know for a fact that this song was a duet. If this was a duet, I'll have to pray really hard to wish that Desiree won't be my partner because I know for a fact that even though I didn't see her she's here in this place somewhere to join the drama club too.

Our teacher announced that he will start the auditions. The couple of people who started were pretty good. I just kept waiting for Mr. Harding to say her name. I wasn't so hard to say her name, its only three syllables in French. But no such luck. The next performers were her brother, Donny, and some other girl. He was good, no argue with that. I don't actually have anything bad to say about Donny. He's actually pretty cool. The only thing I don't like about him is his so called sister.

His audition with the other girl was done. Our teacher stood up to announce the last song. Then what do you know I'm singing with Desiree. I was not hoping for this. I kept my composure and just went for it. I really wanted to get in and I think she does too. So we have to perform together whether we liked it or not.

I went on stage and met her there and she does not look happy with the decision. I had to start first and the rest just went on. I already know that she had a good voice but singing with me made it a little different. It wasn't bad it was actually really amazing. I had to step my performance up a notch. I did crazy things on the stage and she understood what I was doing and just rolled with it.

When we reached the last part of the song, I had a weird feeling in my stomach. It wasn't from disgust but from a good performance and a good partner. But the feeling was a little more about her. I really don't know what was going on. It was like I started to have feeling for her. In the back of my mind, it kept saying SNAP OUT OF IT! But it didn't work. Then the weirdest thing happened. I saw a twinkle in her eyes when I stared directly at them. I just wanted to kiss her then and there. When the song finally stopped, I was glad that she ran off the stage to save me from shame and embarrassment.

I heard a loud round of applause when I actually snapped out of it. When I looked at the audience it was a standing ovation and Mr. Harding was weeping like a baby. Then he said he will post the new members on the bulletin board.

I got out of the school just as my dad was driving by. I got in the shotgun seat and I told him what happened during the audition except the part about my stomach feeling weird.

"You really sang with her?" my dad asked.

"Yeah I did but I didn't enjoy it." I answered him.

"That must have been hard… with your relationship and all." He said.

"You have no idea." I said.

"It's kind of sad that you never liked her?" my dad said like it was a possibility.

"Excuse me?" I said in response "How is it sad? She's the one who poured juice on me and let you drive me back home."

"Exactly my point, that was ten years ago. You have to learn to move on from things like this. Especially this since it was a long time ago." He did a pause before continuing. "She's the only one you don't like right. You don't hate her entire family do you?"

"No just her. The rest are fine with me." I answered him "Her dad's pretty cool actually."

"You know, we used to be roommates back in college." He said

"Really? What happened?" I asked

"Nothing. The reason we barely talk to each other, even though we're neighbors, is because of you two." Listening to him saying that made me feel guilty.

"Oh… were you…um… best friends?" I asked.

"We were actually."

That statement also made me feel even worst. For ten years I've been hating her while at the same time I've been ruining my dad's longest friendship. What kind of son was I? We finally got home and I went to the living room and watched TV.

My dad asked "What do you want for dinner? Because I have Marcelli's Pizza on speed dial."

I answered him "Yeah, pizza sounds great."

He made the phone call and now we have to wait. Second to Chinese food, pizza is the best. I'm not saying this because I have Italian blood, it's because you can never go wrong with pizza.

The door bell rang and I answered it.

"Marcelli's Pizza! There's nothing better than Italy." said the delivery boy.

I paid for the food and placed it on the living room table. We started to eat while watching a movie on the TV. Just to be funny, my dad chose the movie "The Gladiator". My dad asked a lot of questions about camp while we were watching the movie. I've actually already told him about camp but somehow he found new questions.

"Do you actually do gladiatorial combat?"

"Yes dad we do but it's not to the death it's just for combat training."

"Okay. How about the horses on the chariots? Are they like magical horses?"

"No, they're just regular horses. We do have the unicorns but there used for healing. We also have Skippy, Reyna's Pegasus."

"Are there other demigods out there?"

"I think you already know the answer."

"I didn't mean demigods like just Roman. I'm asking if there are demigods besides the Romans."

That got me thinking. "I've actually heard stories around camp that a couple of years back, a flying boat came to camp and inside were Greek demigods."

"Did they attack the camp?"

"The people who were actually there said no. They wanted to band the two camps so we all could save the world. Well that's what they said."

"Hm… interesting, well the movie is done and so is the pizza."

I yawned "I'm beat. I should probably go to bed now."

I said goodnight and went to my room. I was about to change when I heard a scream outside my window. It was coming from next door, from Desiree's room.


	5. Vampires Are From The South

**DESIREE**

I was about to forget the incident of what happened at school when his car came through their drive way.

"Great." I sighed sarcastically.

"Can you lighten up a bit?" Donny told me "The performance wasn't that bad. It was actually the best from the lot."

"Yours was amazing too." I said.

"Yeah, me and Stacy were good. But come on, compared to yours, yours had a standing ovation while we just had a round of applause. Even Mr. Harding was crying with yours. His eyes were dry in our performance." He said to me matter-of-factly.

Honestly he had a point. Our performance was brilliant but the fact that I was singing with Romeo still made me sick.

"You really made you teacher cry with your performance?" dad said coming to the dining room bringing the food.

"We did." I said.

"Wait, we?" dad asked surprised.

I wish I just kept my mouth shut but my brother just couldn't keep his. "Yeah, she sang with someone."

"Really? I'd understand if she outshined her partner, but both of you were good equally?" my dad said amazed.

"Both of them sound better than me and her when we sing together." My brother said while I was glaring at him.

"How about we give a name to this person?" our dad said.

There was a very long pause.

"Well?" dad said a little impatiently.

Donny was about to say something but I stopped him.

"I sang with Romeo." I confessed.

Now my dad was the one who was speechless. Then he finally spoke.

"You sang with Romeo?" he said still surprised.

"Yeah I did. I know it's shocking, but I had no choice I really want to get in the drama club and that was the only way I could get in without getting into the teacher's bad side." I said like I was apologizing.

"Relax its fine." My dad said "I think your teacher did the right thing in pairing you two together."

"Excuse me?" I asked. "How was it a good thing? It was complete torture."

"Your teacher didn't know what happened between you two and sometimes I wished it didn't happen." my dad said.

"You mean you wish that Romeo never used my hair as a paintbrush?" I asked, my irritation starting to grow.

"Yes, I do mean that." dad said "If that never happened you two could be dating by now."

Donny almost choked with his drink.

"What? Even if that never happened, I would prefer being complete strangers than a couple. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room." I stormed off to my room and slammed my door.

The thing my dad said irritated me so much that I screamed in the top of my lungs. Then outside my window, I heard someone laughing.

"Did you find the family of cockroaches living under your bed?" the voice said.

I realized it came from the next door window, which is also Romeo's window.

"What do you want, because I'm really not in the mood to talk to anybody right now? Plus, I do want to see your stupid looking face either" I said to him through my window.

"Fine, I'll just leave you alone then." he said.

But I kind of wanted to talk to him about what happened.

"Wait, don't go yet?" I said, sounding a little desperate, which I didn't like.

"Okay, so … what's up?" he asked.

"I want to talk to you about what happened during the audition." I said

"What's to talk about? We sang together, big deal." He said like he didn't care.

"I know you're lying. You know this is a big deal." I said to him.

"Look, I admit that I was very surprised when I found out we were singing together." He confessed.

"Me too, actually I never in a million years would think that I would sing with you." I said still wondering how much strength it took me to even do the audition with him.

"Well, what's done is done. I do have one question though. How did you make your eyes literally twinkle?" he asked.

"My eyes twinkled?" I said stunned "But your eyes twinkled too."

"Wait, what?" now he was the one confused. "So you didn't make that twinkle in your eyes?"

I shook my head no.

"But, how about yours?" I asked

"I'm a guy. Why would I make my eyes twinkle? But I really don't know how that happened"

I heard a faint sound coming from his door saying "Romeo, are you asleep yet? You better not be playing on your computer."

It probably was his dad.

"I better get to sleep." He told me

He closed his window and pulled his curtains to cover it. I did the same with mine and I got dressed for sleep.

The next couple of days were a blur. It was just the usual things you do in school, learning, book reports, homework, quizzes, and projects. Romeo didn't bother me as much, though. I think he was a little distracted with something but I didn't ask. During our science class our teacher gave us a huge project that we have to pass by the end of next month.

"I think we should buy some basic supplies for the project." I said to him.

I thought he might react very negatively but all he said was "Okay, fine, whatever."

After rehearsals at the auditorium, we drove to the mall courtesy of Oliver, Romeo's best friend. We went to a couple of stores to buy some stuff for the display. I realize that there was a guy who kept following us everywhere we go. We stopped by a few clothing store because I just could not help myself. But the guy still followed us. Then we finally left the mall and we were walking to Oliver's car. When I turned around the guys was still following us.

"Do both of you think this guy is stalking us because he's starting to freak me out a bit." I told them.

"Me too, this guy's been following us since we got to the mall." Oliver said and I notice that he was starting to sweat.

"How about we tell this guy to buzz off?" Romeo said acting so brave and courageous.

He walked up to the guy and we followed.

Then Romeo called him out. "Hey, you under the street lamp!"

The guy pointed at himself.

"Yes you. Could you quit following us around and mind your own business"

When we got closer to him, we got a pretty good look at him. He had really pale skin, even paler than Romeo's. His hair was super black that it blended with the surrounding darkness. He was also wearing clothes that a biker usually wears. To be honest, I thought I was staring at Romeo with different facials feature because his face was like an upside-down teardrop. The top of his head was round and his hair looked like he super glued every strand to face the back of his head. At the bottom of his head, his chin looked sharp enough to prick you. Then he started talking.

"I did not mean to agitate you" he said "I am just here to get something that belongs to my mistress."

His voice sounded like a Southern accent like somewhere in New Orleans.

"Well you can tell your mistress we don't have anything that belongs to her." Romeo said still trying to act all macho and stuff.

"Oh really?" he said sounding humored "Well that's not what she said. Her orders were to bring back what she lost from you or you will never see your father again."

We were all stunned about what he said. I just kept wondering why they had Mr. Valentino and what would they do to him. He was actually a really nice man, unlike his son; he never did anything bad as far as I can tell.

"What are you talking about? Where's my father?" Romeo said and I notice that he was about to cry. I did feel bad for him. Unlike me where I have a somewhat big family, he only has his dad.

"I'm glad you asked." said the guy. Then he showed us a floating image of Mr. Valentino chained in a chair.

"Now if you cooperate, I won't have to fight you." Mr. From the South said.

But Romeo still wanted to know where his father was.

"Where is he? What have you done with him?" he said tears dripping from his face.

"Just give me what my mistress wants and we'll let him go, unless you want her to feed on him slowly." He said

"We don't have the thing you're looking for. Heck, I don't even know what you're looking for." Romeo confessed but I don't think the guy believed him.

"Fine, if you won't tell me where it is, I'll force it out of you." He said starting to sound a little demonic.

His whole body was staring to change form. First his ears started to grow huge and pointy like bat ears. Then the leather clothes on his body started to merge with his skin and his arm started to grow leathery bat wings too. His feet were also turning into claws. I have seen harpies and the furies but this guy did not look like any of the two. He did remind me of one monster.

"Guys, he said mistress addressing his employer right?" I asked the boys who were still stunned at his transformation.

"Yeah, why?" Oliver said his voice trembling with fear. I couldn't blame him; Pointy Chin was starting to look both ugly and scary.

"Call me crazy but I think his a minion of Lamia, one of the first to be considered a vampire in the ancient times." I told them.

"So this thing is a vampire." Romeo said. "That just makes me even more irritated with them."

Then I was shocked when he pulled a gold sword out of his bag and started attacking that thing and the blood sucking beast attacked back. That actually gave me an opportunity to grab my bronze dagger out of my bag. Oliver ran to his car and grabbed something out of the trunk which looked like a club, the usual weapon of a satyr. I actually knew Oliver was a satyr and I thought he just befriended Romeo because he was a cool guy in his perspective.

Oliver and I tried to attack but the thing just kept pushing us out of the way really hard and Romeo was not near winning this fight. He kept slashing but the monster's wounds just kept healing. I tried again but he knocked me out next to a tree. When I woke up from my daze, I had an idea. I grabbed one of the fallen branches that looked sturdy enough and started sharpening the tip of the branch with my dagger. When it was sharp enough I prayed to every god I knew to let this work.

"Please let the cliché work." I said.

I threw the branch like a spear right at the target. It hit the back of the monster and went through its chest. It screamed at the top of its lungs, which sounded like nails on a chalkboard and it disintegrated into gold dust. I was relieved that my plan worked. Both Romeo and Oliver were relieved too. But then it struck both me and Romeo.

"YOU'RE A DEMIGOD!" both of us screamed at each other.

"Are you a demigod too?" Romeo asked Oliver.

"No, I'm not" Oliver responded.

"Oh… Okay." Romeo did a sigh of relief.

But Oliver continued "I'm actually a satyr."

"A what?" Romeo said"you mean faun right?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm a satyr. Have I ever asked you for money before?" Oliver asked.

"Well, no." Romeo said

"Then I'm not a faun." Oliver replied back.

"You know, I think it will be a lot better if we discussed this in the car." I said to them and they both agreed.

Oliver started the engine and we drove back to our homes. But during the ride we did a little talking.

"So, you're a demigod? Who's your mom?" Romeo asked me.

"My mom is Aphrodite." I told him.

"You mean Venus right?" he asked.

"No, I really do mean Aphrodite. I'm a Greek demigod." I said.

"That explains so much." He said to me.

"I don't follow." I said confused.

"Well, I hear a lot of stories about there being Greek demigods but I thought you actually did not exist." He told me.

"Let me guess you're a Roman demigod aren't you?" I said figuring out what he is. "So who's your mom?"

"Yes, I am a Roman demigod and my mom is Minerva." He answered me.

"That's Athena in Roman form right?" I asked.

"You can say that." He said.

"Hm… I'm just wondering why you're not blonde." I said to him.

That took him a back a bit.

"Why should I be blonde?" he asked still confused.

"Because where we come from the, all the children of Athena are blonde." Oliver explained.

"Well, except Pré and Preston though." I said.

"Wait, they're demigods too?" Romeo said surprised. "With that said it's obvious that your brother is also a demigod since he's your twin right."

"Oh, most definitely but were not the only ones in the family." I said to him a little too casually.

"Now I don't get it." He said getting confused again.

"I mean that all of my family members are demigods." I explained further.

"Oh, really?" he said surprised but his tone sounded sad. "So who's whose parent?"

"Oh, okay. Let me start with my grandma." I started.

"Wait I thought it was just you cousins?" he said.

"Didn't you hear me I said all my family members. My whole ancestry was all demigods. I mean like way back from ancient times." I explained again and this time he was silent. I wasn't sure if he was silent because he didn't believe me or because he was in shock at what I said.

"Any way back to my grandmother, she was a daughter of Athena. Then she had an affair with Apollo and that's why my dad, my uncle, and my aunts were born. Then dad dated Aphrodite, Uncle Parker with Athena, Aunt Brooke did Hephaestus, and Aunt Giselle had it with Hermes." I concluded.

"Let me get this straight. So you're telling me that I'm related to your grandma and one-fourth of your cousins." He summarized.

"You could say that but remember that the gods don't have mortal DNA." I told him.

"So since you're a demigod, do you go to a camp?" he asked me.

"Dude, remember our conversation two weeks ago about our summer vacations?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, Why?" Romeo asked back.

"If you had come with me to New York, you could have seen the camp yourself." Oliver explained.

"The camp's name is called Camp Half-Blood." I mentioned to him.

"So the camp is just in New York?" he asked "At least it's near. Mine is on the other side of the country." He explained.

"Wait." Oliver said realizing what he was saying. "Are you telling me that that art camp you told me about was actually a demigod camp?"

"Hey, I didn't know you were half goat." He said. "I thought you were fully human, so I couldn't just mention it to anyone about the camp."

"Where is the camp any way and what's the name?" I asked.

"It's in San Francisco and the name is Camp Jupiter. Our camp is magically hidden by the highway." He told us.

"While ours is magically hidden in the forest in Long Island Sound." I told him.

"That dagger you have, what 's it made of?" he asked me.

"Celestial Bronze. The metal can only be found in Olympus." I explained. "What's your sword made of?"

"Its Imperial Gold. You can also find it in Olympus and it's was also hidden somewhere in the Eternal City. You know, original Rome. The Roman emperors hid it so no one can steal any of it."

With all the talking about our two camps we didn't realize we already were home. Then I notice something odd about Romeo's house. It looked like someone broke in.

"Um… Romeo, why is your door wide open?" I told him. Then he ran out of the car and into his house. Oliver and I followed him and everything inside the house was turned upside down.

"Did they take anything?" Oliver asked.

"I don't think so. If they did, most of the things in the living room would disappear by now." Romeo explained. "Maybe those stupid vampires trashed my house just looking for that thing, whatever it is."

Then all of a sudden Romeo slumped on the sofa and started crying.

"Dad's not home yet." He said tears running down his eyes. "He usually is this time at night, even when he worked late."

"Usually I wouldn't say this but I think it's for the best." I said "You won't mind sleeping at our place for a while do you? I mean your house is well destroyed and I think your still a little traumatize by the incident at the mall, and finding out about your dad in all."

"I need to find him." he said still tearing up.

"And you will, I'll even help." I promised him. " As much as I hate you, I don't hate your dad. He's always been nice to me even with the horrible things I've done to you. He never gets mad at me. Now go grab a few things you'll need at my house, I'll wait for you here."

"Hey Des, I gotta go. It's getting really late." Oliver said.

"It's no problem I'll handle things from here." I told him and he left the house and drove off to his home.

I waited for Romeo to get ready. Looking around his house almost made me cry. Everything was upside down. Not even the fish tank was spared. I kept wondering what they were looking for. These things were minions of Lamia, one of the first vampires. Though she is a little different than the vampires we know on TV and movies. In what I remembered at my monster lessons at camp, where her legs should be, there was a snake truck to tail. Her torso was human but her arms had leathery wings like a bats and her face was also a bats but more monstrous looking. She mostly eats little children, but on occasions, she feeds on the blood of young men using a medallion to tell her which is her prey. Maybe that's what they were looking for, the medallion. But why would Romeo or even Mr. Valentino have it?

I heard footsteps from the staircase and Romeo came in the living room with an overnight bag.

"Are you ready?" I asked him. I didn't want to tell him what I just figured out. Not until he was ready to discuss more about his dad's kidnapper.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He said still a little sad.

We went next door to my house. I grabbed my keys and went inside and I was attacked by a bear hug from my dad.

"Where have you been all night?" he asked me worried "I tried to call you but you wouldn't answer your phone. I thought something happened to you."

"Can't… breathe." I told him trying to gasp for air.

"Sorry." My dad apologized.

"It's okay and I'm fine dad, but there one person who isn't too fine." For the first time, dad noticed Romeo.

"Can we go to the living room first?" I asked him.


	6. Stupid Vampires Kidnapped My Dad

**ROMEO**

Today was not a great day for me. First, I had this weird vampire nightmare the night before. Then by morning, dad told me he'll be leaving for a business trip next week. After getting to school I was distracted the entire day and I didn't want to be bothered by Desiree. I think she got the picture and she didn't annoy me. Then at the mall when that guy was following us. Then when we got to the parking lot, the guy still followed us and I told him to back off. Then he tells me that his mistress kidnapped my dad. He wanted to get something I don't even know what it was. After that he transformed into an ugly bat thing that apparently was an ugly vampire. Then I found out that my best friend was half goat and my neighbor/enemy was a Greek demigod. When I got home, I found everything inside my house was trashed but at least nothing was stolen. Then I broke down crying for my dad, which was not so manly in front of a girl. I may not like her but she's still a girl. The only thing that wasn't so bad was I found out Desiree had a heart. She offered to let me stay at her house for a while because to be honest I don't think I can stay in this house without crying every day. I was just lucky it was Saturday tomorrow. I wanted to be depressed without being disturbed.

I was getting a few things from my room, which was also trashed, and I notice a piece of paper I did not place on my bed side table. Inside the paper was a note. It took me a while to read it but it said:

"Dear Romeo,

You may be wondering what's going on. If I survive this situation, I will tell you everything, but right now you have to help me. I am being kidnapped by Lamia the vampire and I don't know where she is taking me. I know how much you hate vampires and this is a good opportunity to kill some. If you were attacked by some of her minions then I think you get the picture. All they want is a medallion I threw away a year before your mother brought you to me. If you're wondering where it is, it's somewhere in Chinle, Arizona. I threw it at the Chelly Canyon. If you could try to find it, you could rescue me. But if you can't and I'm not forcing you to find it, well let's just say that yesterday was the last time you'll ever see me. I love you son and don't you forget that.

P.S.

If you are trying to find me, the best way to destroy her minions are wood, any kind of wood. So I advise you to be near trees if they attack. But if you're planning on killing Lamia herself, you need to get branches from the oldest tree in the place she lives in.

With all the love in the world,

Dad"

I place the note in my pocket and gathered the rest of my stuff in a bag. I went down stairs to find that Oliver already left and Desiree was waiting for me at my upside down living room.

"Are you ready?" she asked me with sincerity.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I said still a little stunned by the letter my dad wrote.

We walked to her house which is just next door. When we went inside, her dad attacked her with a bear hug and I can tell she couldn't breathe. When her dad brought her back down, she motioned to me and we headed to their living room.

"So, what brings you to our home Romeo?" her dad asked.

"There was a break-in in our house and everything was turned upside down." I told them.

"Should we call the cops? Did they steal anything?" her dad asked starting to sound concerned.

"No, it's fine. The house was already like that when I got home and it's a good thing nothing was taken." I said.

"Um… dad, we were wondering if he could stay here for a while, while we try to fix his house." Des asked her dad's permission.

"By all means necessary, but I have to ask, where your father is." He asked me.

I wasn't in the mood to talk about it. But Desiree stepped in for me.

"The break-in wasn't the worst part." She started "Mr. Valentino was also kidnapped."

"What?" Dr. Jones said shocked "Then we better call the police or Parker in case something tragic might happen to him."

He tried to reach for the phone but I stopped him.

"Mortal police can't help us." I said "Only our kind can."

"What do you mean our kind?" Donny asked.

"Before my dad was kidnapped, he wrote me this letter." I handed the letter to Dr. Jones. When he read the letter, he came to a realization.

"You're a demigod?" he asked me.

"I am. I'm the son of Minerva." I confessed. "I also know that all your family members are Greek demigods."

"Guilty." Desiree confessed

"Wait, you're Roman right? Because Minerva is Roman for Athena." Donny asked me again and I nodded my head yes.

"Is your dad…" he couldn't continue.

"A demigod?" I finished for him. "No, he's not. He's one-hundred percent mortal."

Dr. Jones nodded. "Then how did he get involved with Lamia?"

"You're dad was kidnapped by an ugly snake-bat monster lady?" Donny said in shock.

"I don't know how he got involved with her but I plan to find out." I told him. I stood up too fast and my whole body was in pain.

"You should sit back down." Dr. Jones told me "Donny, go get me some ambrosia bars from the fridge."

Donny went to the kitchen and came back with a container filled with ambrosia bars. He gave me portions of the treat and I started feeling better when I ate it. Desiree also took tiny portions. Being knock down hard a couple of times could really hurt.

"Okay, that's enough." said Dr. Jones stopping me from eating the whole thing. "You know eating too much will disintegrate you."

He took back the food and placed the container on the table.

"What happened to make you hurt like this?" he asked me as he was a medical doctor after all.

"We were attacked by one of her minions at the mall." I told him.

"What do you mean 'we'? Were you there too?" he motioned to his daughter.

"I actually killed it." She told him.

"That was the very first attack we ever had outside camp borders." He said stunned.

"Technically, the attack was meant for him." she pointed at me like it was my fault, which somehow was. "I was just extra help."

"Look, I'm really tire and sore. Can I rest for a bit?" I asked them.

"Well, you're in luck we have a guest bedroom right next to Desiree's room." Their dad told me "Des, why don't you show our guest his room?"

"Come on, right this way." She called me.

I followed her upstairs. I saw a room filled with girly stuff, which I knew was hers. Across her room was a room filled with posters of musical bands and an electric guitar, which I was guessing was Donny's, unless Apollo was staying at their house and not in Olympus, which I doubted. Right beside Des' room was a room that looked like any other hotel suite.

"Well, this is the guest bedroom." She showed me in. "Make yourself comfortable, you have your own bathroom, which is right there, and dinner will be served pretty soon. So, we'll just call you."

She left my room and I lay down on the bed just thinking about how the day went. I still can't believe that my dad was kidnapped by annoying ancient vampires. I still can't believe my best friend's lower half is a goat. And I definitely can't believe how nice Desiree was treating me. I must really be that much of a wreck for her to be sweet to me, which really sucked. She's only nice to me because my dad was captured, she could have been nice to me several years ago. But no, the only time she shows me kindness is when I'm vulnerable.

Then I heard a light knock on my door.

"Come in." I said to the knocker. It was Desiree.

"Dinner's ready. With all the excitement today, you have to be starving." She told me.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until we made it to the backyard where they prepared the table. The smell of grilled meat made my stomach absolutely grumble.

"Sit any where you like." Dr. Jones offered me.

I sat on the chair which was beside hers. I ignored that thought by looking at the food on the table.

"Wow, I haven't had a cooked dinner since dad got elected DA." I said sadly remembering those days.

Then I noticed beside the table was a flaming brazier.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"Oh, I guess you don't do this at the Roman camp." Dr. Jones said "Well, the brazier is for an offering to the gods. We give a portion of our food and we burn it in here. Let me go first so you can see."

He stood up, took a big meaty piece of rib and threw it in the blazing fire. They he yelled "To the gods!"

Donny and Desiree did the same, burning the best parts of their food in the flame. I did the same as well and I also silently prayed to my mom to help me try to rescue dad. What should have smelled of burning meat was a smell of fragrance.

"Now we can start eating." said Dr. Jones and we dug into our meals.

After dinner, I offered to help clean the plates but Dr. Jones insisted that I should get back to my room and rest. You can say it was the doctor's orders. So I did what I was told and went back to my room. I got out of my clothes and grabbed a pajama bottom to wear. I usually don't wear a shirt when I sleep. I lay down on my bed but I didn't feel like sleeping yet and I didn't want to. My nightmare last night just gave me Goosebumps. As a demigod, you usually get strange dreams that end up being real. I just witnessed that happen at the mall when we were attacked, though in my dream it was much scarier.

I heard footsteps going upstairs and doors closing. I guess everybody was hitting the hay. Then I started imagining how Desiree has changed after the years. Her body filled up pretty well. There was nothing wrong with it, well maybe that's because of her mom. But still, she looked fine. Then I was imagining her getting dressed for the night, getting ready to sleep. I was starting to feel something grow inside my pants and I cannot believe what I will be doing next. But I did need a stress reliever. I grabbed my bag, which was by the foot of my bed, to find something, and I can't believe I even found one.

I got off my bed and went out of the room quietly, trying not to wake everybody up. I slowly tip-toed to Desiree's door and I slightly opened it.

"Is someone there?" she asked. Apparently she wasn't asleep yet.

"It's just me." I answered her getting myself inside. She was just about to sleep because she was already lying in her bed, wearing a shiny lingerie-looking night gown, which made the thing in my pants hurt even more.

"What are you doing here?" she asked me confused.

"I just wanted to talk or maybe play a little." I told her and she was staring straight at my growth.

"Define playing a little." She said awkwardly.

"Honestly, I came here so you could help me out with a little… problem." I said staring at my own growth.

"You want me to help you with… that?" she said "Why, you can't do it yourself?"

"I could do it myself but I thought a little help might make it faster. Plus, I don't want to make an embarrassing stain on your sheets." I told her sounding a little sheepish right now. "You know what; I'll just do it myself. I'll do it in my bathroom so I won't stain your sheets. But I might wake both your brother and your dad. You know that bathrooms make you sound louder right?"

"That's actually more embarrassing than staining the sheet." She told me. Then the look on her face told me she was thinking.

"Fine, I'll help you." She decided "Come lay down with me."

She pulled me to her bed and she sat on top of me.

"I only have a few conditions." She told me demandingly. "One: I do not want to use my mouth. Two: forget my hands too. Tonight I'll just give you the prize directly. No need to play the rest of the game."

"Wait, have you done this before?" I asked her.

"No, I haven't actually. But I hear too many stories in the girl's locker room and most of them sound disgusting." She confessed. " Which reminds me, you are also not allowed at the back. Now it's my turn to ask. Have you done this before?"

"To be honest, no. This will be my first time too." I confessed to her and she smiled at me.

"Well, this is a very natural thing and it's more natural to guys than the girls. So I'll let you be on top of the leader board." She told me, which made me smile.

I pulled her back down and I got on top of her. I actually didn't know what to do. So first, we just started making out and touching each other. I touched her a little too low, she was not wearing something down there, and she squealed, which I think she liked and I kept doing it. Then I realized she was getting too loud. So I had to stop.

"Wait, why did you stop? It was just getting good." She said catching her breathe.

"You're getting too loud. Your family might hear you." I told her "Can you try decreasing the sound a little?"

"I'll try." She said. She did a pretty good job at trying to not make a sound. She would bite her lower lip and make an 'O' with her mouth, sometimes she whispers. But once in a while there's a loud yelp from her.

"My growth is starting to hurt." I told her in pain. "Are you sure you don't want to use your hands?"

"I am not using my hands." She told me "But maybe it's time for the grand prize."

I got the hint and tried to direct my growth in place, but first I had to put on what I found.

"How do you even have one?" she asked me. "You didn't steal it from my dad's room, did you?"

"What? No." I told her "I found it inside my bag. It was pure luck really."

I placed it back in position and took it slow. I went in a little deeper when I hit her barrier.

"Don't ram it. Just push hard enough to break it but not too hard." She begged me.

I pushed a little harder and I got in a little deeper. I was happy but she yelped in pain when I got through. I stopped for a while to let her get used to it. I started to pump back and forth and she was starting to get used to it. It's amazing that I exactly fit her because when I got to the end I was completely in.

She was starting to speak her own language now. It must be that good because honestly I'm just following what I've seen on the computer. I didn't realize how tight the entrance was until she started to become more excited. I thought I wasn't going to last but I did. It took more excitements to get me off. When both of us were completely exhausted, I got out and notice that it broke but I couldn't concentrate on it and I fell asleep.

I woke up feeling relieved and happy. I felt someone grabbing me. I turned to the other side of the bed and saw Desiree beside me.

"Are we doing it again?" she asked mumbling.

I looked at the clock on her wall. It was 4:30 in the morning, the perfect time for me to get back to my room.

"I should probably get back to my room." I told her but she was still half asleep.

I got out of her bed slowly and started opening her door when she mumbled again. "We should do this more often."

I turn around to see her awake.

"It was fun and thanks for the help." I winked at her.

"You could call us enemies with benefits." She told me. That told me that this definitely will not be the only time we'll be doing this.

I tip-toed, as quietly as possible, back to my room and when I got there I realize that I was still wearing it. I went to the bathroom to clean up. I took it off and I noticed there was a tear at the tip. Then I almost started to panic. If it got ripped then that means I'm going to be a dad in nine months. I prayed to every maternity goddess I knew that that day will never come.

I rested for a few hours. When I heard my door open, I woke up a bit and saw Desiree at my door.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." She apologized.

"It's alright. Why are you here anyway?" I asked her. "Were not doing it again, are we?"

"No, were not doing it again but probably soon." She said. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Did the experience last night change our relationship status?"

"And what status would that be?" I asked her.

"Well unless you want us to stay enemies, which I doubt from what happened last night." She said "I guess that status would be acquaintances."

"Are you saying were starting to become friends?" I told her

"Not technically friends. We're just starting off." she told me "We should get downstairs. There's already breakfast on the table."

She went out of my room and I got ready for the day. I also grabbed the letter my dad wrote, to keep it safe because it's the last thing he ever gave me. When I opened the door she was waiting for me. We went downstairs to their kitchen and I could smell eggs and bacon, a traditional American breakfast. Donny was already there eating.

"We're not going to burn food?" I asked

"Usually in the morning we don't but at camp we do." Donny explained. "So, you guys have fun last night?"

"What are you talking about? I was asleep in my bed." I said defensively.

"I was too. How is sleeping fun?" She also said defensively.

"Well, sleeping could be fun if you're sleeping with somebody else and playing at the same time." Donny expressed.

Des and I just ate our food awkwardly.

"Ha, I knew it. You did do it last night." Donny said like he just solved the world's biggest mystery.

"Okay, yeah we did it." She said annoyed by her brother. "How did you know anyway? Were peeking in my room?"

"Des, my room is right across your." Donny started "I heard breathing and sighing and sometimes yelling and swearing."

"So I had to conclude that you…" he pointed at me "…went to her room and did the business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be next door helping dad fix your house." Then he left.

"Your dad doesn't work on weekends?" I asked her.

"He usually does but I think he called the hospital to tell them he won't be in today." She answered.

"I better get to my house to help." I said while we were eating.

"I don't think that's such a great idea." she suggested "I have a feeling one step inside and you'll start crying like a baby."

"What happened to being acquaintances?" I asked because she kind of insulted me.

"Sorry, old habits die hard." she said to me.

We continued eating, when Oliver came in.

"Hey guys!" he greeted us "What's going on here? A breakfast date?"

"No just breakfast." I told him.

"Well anyway" he continued "with all the commotions yesterday, you forgot your stuff in my car. Where should I place it?"

"Just place it in the living room." Des said pointing to the sofa.

"How did you know where I was?" I asked him.

He came to the table and sat in one of the chairs. "I went to your house first and found her dad fixing the place. It's still a total wreck, buddy."

"I should really help them." I insisted "It's my house."

"No can do man, Dr. Jones specifically told me not to let you come to that house until everything will be back in place." Oliver told me.

Why won't they let me do anything? I thought to myself irritated by the hospitality.

"Fine, if you won't let me do anything, I'll do something else." I told them.

"What kind of something else?" Des asked me.

I pulled the letter out of my pocket. When she saw it, her eyes went wide.

"No, you are not going. It's suicide." She begged me.

"Wants going on? What's that letter?" Oliver asked confused.

I told him it was a letter from my dad and that he was kidnapped by Lamia.

"And she just wants her medallion back?" he asked "That doesn't sound so hard."

"Actually it is." I told him "My dad wrote that he threw it away at the Chelly Canyon in Arizona."

"So you want us to go on a wild goose chase to find this medallion and save your dad?" she told me still not convinced this was a good idea.

"Yup and both of you are going to help me." I said to them.


	7. Detour To New York

**DESIREE**

"What? This is insane!" I started yelling at Romeo "This is a suicide mission!"

"Don't you think I know that?" he started yelling at me. "Wouldn't you do anything to help your family? Because that's what I'm doing! You're lucky because you have this big family! My dad is all I've got and I'm not losing him! If you don't want to come, that's up to you but I remembered that you'd promise me you'd help me! Now, why aren't you trying to help me?"

"To be honest, I'm scared." I said my voice starting to tremble "Last night was the first time my family was attack by a monster outside of camp for millennia. I've never even been on a quest. And it also sounds impossible. A canyon is big. It will take us forever to find that medallion and your dad will be long gone by then."

"If you help me, it will be a possibility." He said giving me a little hope. "I know someone who can help us at my camp. Her name is Hazel and she can control minerals from the earth. If we ask her to help us, she can help us find the medallion."

"Were seriously doing this?" I ask him still sounding doubtful.

"Well I'm in. I'd do anything to help you and I've always wanted to go to a quest" Oliver said.

"Fine I'm in too, it's a good thing I'm wearing jeans today. But we can't take the nectar and ambrosia." I told them "My dad might wonder why portions are missing."

"We can't travel without it." Romeo said a little disappointed. "Maybe your dad won't mind if you write him a note."

"I think I know where we could get some." Oliver said "But we need to take a detour to New York."

"You mean will get them at camp?" I said "Good, I'll call Chiron to tell him we're coming and I have a couple of weapons at my cabin too. First I'll have to write a note for dad to tell him we're leaving."

I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote:

Dear Dad,

If you're wondering where I am, I am going on a quest to help save Mr. Valentino because Romeo forced me to. I promise you I will be back soon. And don't worry about school. The next couple of days were declared holidays, so we'll try to come back before class returns.

Your loving daughter,

Desiree

I stuck the note on the fridge with a magnet and I went to the back yard and turned on the hose. I blocked the water's exit with my thumb to make it look misty and I aimed it at some sunlight. It created a rainbow and I took a gold drachma out of my pocket and threw it at the rainbow and said "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, Chiron at Camp Half-Blood."

Then the mist shimmered into an image of a man who looked like he was riding on a horse but actually he is the horse. Chiron is a centaur. The only centaur you will ever know who has a brain or manners. From the waist up, he looks like a professor at a university. But from the waist down, it was a horse's body.

"Chiron!" I called at him.

He turned around and saw me. "Desiree, may I ask why you are calling me?"

"Oliver and I are coming to camp. We're also bringing a friend." I told him.

"And who is this friend of yours?" he asked again.

"He's my neighbor." I told him "I just found out last night that he's a demigod."

"Isn't it the beginning of the school year?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"It is actually." I answered him.

"Then why are you coming here?" he asked one more time.

The sun was starting to disappear behind a cloud.

"I'll explain everything when we get there." I told him. Then the message was over.

I turned the hose off and went to my room just to grab a few things. I grabbed a big backpack just in case. I grabbed my dagger and just a few t-shirts. I wasn't really sure if we had time to change. Though I could just keep my pants and sneakers on, I do not want to wear the same t-shirt for the next few days.

My bag was still really light, which was a good things because I needed space for the things we'll need when we get to the camp. When I was finished I went back downstairs, to find the boys ready to go.

"Aren't you going to get ready?" I asked Oliver.

"I already have a couple of things in the car." He told me "But I still need a couple of things from the camp."

"Are you ready?" I asked Romeo because he will be the team leader for this mission and I hope we won't chicken out.

"Ready as I'll ever gonna be." He replied.

He sighed to let out his anxiety and said to Oliver "First things first, where did you park the car?"

"It's parked outside your house." He said.

"We can't go to his house and risk my dad seeing us." I told them "If he sees us he'll wonder what were up to and make us stop. My dad can be pretty persuasive when he likes to be."

"We need a diversion." Romeo said while thinking of a strategy. "How about this? Oliver, you go to your car and drive to the corner up the street, going away from my house. If Dr. Jones sees you, just say that you're going home. Then when he goes back inside and the coast is clear, the two of us, me and Des, will walk to that corner and get inside your car. How does that sound?"

"You've made your mother proud. Let's do it." I told him and we executed his plan. I have to say that nothing went wrong with his plan. It went exactly like I imagined it. Oliver walked up to his car and dad came out to see what he was doing. Then they waved goodbye. He drove pass my house and up to the corner. Dad went back inside to continue fixing Romeo's house. When he was out of sight, even through the windows, we quickly ran to the corner and got in the car.

"I can't believe my plan worked." Romeo said proud of himself.

"Next stop… Long Island Sound, New York." Oliver announced and we drove off.

It took us about three to four hours to get there. We did have to cross two states, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We got inside the forest and came to a hill which all we Greek demigods know as Half-Blood Hill. We drove pass it and a few campers went near the car. Two demigods welcomed us to the camp. One was a boy with green eyes and black hair. The other was a girl with curly blond hair and stormy gray eyes. Those two were Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.

"Hey, Des." Annabeth greeted me. "What are you doing here? Isn't school starting already?"

"Actually, I'm here to get a few supplies." I told her coming out of the car "I'm going to accompany a friend of mine to New Mexico."

"Then why do you have to go here then?" Percy asked me confused.

"Because my dad was kidnapped by an ancient vampire." Romeo came out of the car and told everyone.

"Ancient vampire?" Annabeth asked also confused. "Who are you? I haven't seen you here before?"

"I'm Romeo Valentino and I'm the son of Minerva." He told her while showing her a tattoo on his arm which I did not see before. His tattoo showed the letter 'SPQR' with an owl above it and two stripes below it.

"Oh, I see." She said "We should probably go to the Big House. Percy, go call Chiron."

"When did you get that?" I asked Romeo.

"You haven't seen this last night? Well maybe you were too distracted." he told me "I had this for two years now. That's why I have these two stripes."

We walked to the Big House while admiring the scenery. Oliver volunteered to get the nectar and ambrosia at the camp store. He left us and we kept walking up to the big blue barn house.

"This view never get's old." I sighed.

"It's so different from Camp Jupiter." He told me. "My camp is so strict and military like, while here it's so free and loose."

We came to the Big House and we went to the parlor. Inside, we saw a man on a wheelchair, which was Chiron's human disguise, Rachel Elizabeth Dare with her fiery red hair, who was our oracle, Percy and Annabeth.

"Hello there, Desiree." Chiron greeted me "It's good to see you. And you must be her friend."

"I am. I'm Romeo Valentino. And by the way you're looking at my arm; I think you know where I'm from."

"I do." Chiron said. "I'm also glad that I can finally talk about it. You came from Camp Jupiter the camp for Roman demigods."

"You said you were the son of Minerva." Percy said "So you're technically Annabeth's brother. She's the daughter of Athena."

Romeo started shifting in his seat. "Look, the reason we came here is to get a couple of supplies."

"You said that your dad was captured by an ancient vampire." Annabeth said "The monsters that have the qualities of a vampire are Empusa, Mormo, and Lamia. Did any of those monsters kidnap your dad?"

"Yes, Lamia is the one that captured my dad." Romeo said. He pulled out his letter and gave it to Chiron.

"How was your father involved with the monster?"Chiron asked.

"I don't know." He answered him "But I guess he was the last to keep her medallion because he threw it away in the Chelly Canyon in Arizona."

"Do you think this is where she is right now?" I asked Romeo.

"I don't think so." He said thinking. "Remember when we were attacked by one of her minions?"

"How can I forget? It was yesterday." I told him like it should be obvious because it was a very recent event.

"I actually had a nightmare about it two nights ago." He told us. "I was fighting this monster bat thing but in the background there was a faint sound of jazz music. It actually made it scarier because what I've learned in school about music in America. In New Orleans, jazz music is usually played when there's a funeral."

"How can you be so sure it could be in New Orleans?" Rachel asked "Sure, they play jazz music during funerals but they always play jazz music every day."

"That's exactly why I think it's there." Romeo said standing up. "What other place plays jazz music every day?"

"It makes sense." I said "The one that attacked us had a New Orleans accent."

All of a sudden we heard hissing noises and it was coming from Rachel's direction. Green smoke started to circle around her. Her eyes were glowing and when she spoke, it sounded raspy and coarse.

**"_To territories unknown you shall cross_**

**_At the land of stones to search what is lost_**

**_Go south to the land of festivals and songs_**

**_To rescue a loved one and return what was lost to where it belongs_"**

"Was that normal? The thing that she did." Romeo asked shaken up.

"Sorry." Rachel apologized "There wasn't time to warn you. It just wanted to say something really bad."

"Warn me about what?" Romeo asked confused "and what's the it you're talking about."

"I'm the camp's oracle and I give prophecies to people going on quest." Rachel explained. "The thing that just happened was me giving you a prophecy. The spirit of the Oracle of Delphi lives within me and sometimes it just blurts out prophecies whenever it likes. Don't you have and oracle where you're from?"

"Well, no we don't have an oracle." Romeo said "We have an augur that tells us our prophecies."

"An ogre?" Rachel asked confused "Isn't that a monster?"

"No Rachel, he meant augur." Annabeth explained to Rachel. "It has a different spelling from the monster. An augur is a priest that reads prophecies using animal internal organs. We've actually met their augur and he was not very nice. But instead of killing an animal for its internal organs, he kills innocent stuff toys and reads its stuffing."

"That's so sad." Rachel said.

"How is Octavian anyway?" Percy asked.

"He's still as annoying as ever." Romeo answered. "He's still torturing stuff toys and trying to get the praetor ship. The usual."

"It's nice to hear some things never change." Percy said sarcastically.

"Well we've already heard the prophecy and some parts are very clear." Chiron said. "Most of what was in the prophecy was inside your father's letter. I would advise you to eat lunch first before you go."

Just as he said lunch the horn blew and all of us walked out of the Big House and headed straight to the Dining Pavilion. Romeo just followed where we were all going since he has never been here before.

"So where do you want to sit?" I asked him.

"He could sit with me at the Athena table." Annabeth offered. "But if you feel uncomfortable with me and the others, you could sit with Chiron at the front table. I don't think he would mind."

"You are very welcomed to join us at our table." Chiron gestured.

"Thank you for the offer Chiron but I think I'll sit with Annabeth. No offense but if I sit in the front table, a lot of people will stare and I'm not very comfortable with that." Romeo said.

"And this is coming from a guy who loves performing in front of thousands of people." I told everyone.

"Well not a thousand, maybe a hundred, possibly five hundred." He interjected.

"Then our table it is." Annabeth said "I'm actually the head of the cabin. So I'll make sure nobody says anything bad about you during lunch."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Romeo thanked awkwardly.

"Don't you worry our table is just beside theirs just sit on the left side so we could be nearer and you won't feel uneasy when you get there." I told him.

We saw Oliver heading toward us.

"Hey guys." He called to us. "I got the supplies. When do we leave?"

"After lunch." I told him.

"Good, because I'm starving." He said holding his stomach.

We got to the pavilion and we sat at our tables. Romeo took my advice and we were sitting back to back. I heard many welcomes at the Athena table and I hope he doesn't feel too awkward with his Greek siblings.

"Hey Desiree." My senior counselor, Piper, greeted me. "What are you doing here so very early?"

Piper wasn't like any of the other Aphrodite kids, just like me. But that's where the similarities stop. Unlike me, she's more down to earth. She doesn't do much effort about how she looks. And she's the only one I know in the cabin who has a kaleidoscope for eyes.

"I'm actually on a quest to help rescue my friend's dad from a blood sucking monster." I answered her.

"Oh my gods, that's awful." She said sympathetically "I should know, my dad was kidnapped a few years ago… well it's kind of a long story and you don't have time to hear it do you."

"Sorry, but I am on a tight schedule." I told her "But I'd love to hear it by next summer."

Then Chiron stomped his hooves on the floor to silence everyone. "Settle down campers. I have an announcement to make. As you all know Desiree has come back to camp a little too early with Oliver, one of our own satyrs"

Oliver stood up.

"And her friend Romeo Valentino." Romeo also stood up.

"Romeo is actually from Camp Jupiter and he is the son of Minerva, who we all know as Athena. That is why he is seated right now at the Athena table. I hope you welcome him with proper decency. But let me inform you that he will not be staying with us. He is just here to pick up a few supplies and be on his way."

Then someone in the Ares table, I think it was Clarisse, shouted "Why does he need our supplies? Why couldn't he get it from his own camp?"

Then Romeo stood back up and faced the table to address them. "Because it is on the other side of the country and I am on a quest to save my father from become a monster's drinking dispenser. Your camp was the closest to get supplies. I came from Boston and I'm also Desiree's neighbor. Your oracle has already given me a prophecy and in your standards it means it is an official quest. If you are wondering who or what this creature is, we believe it is Lamia the vampire of your period. I am no fan of the creatures and I will enjoy destroying as much of them as possible. Somehow before I was born she had a relationship with my father so he could become her snack. They say she had a medallion that she gives to her prey and which my father threw away in a canyon in Arizona. All I or we have to do is find the medallion and give it back her. We believe that she is in New Orleans and we plan to find out. I already have a strategy for this mission and I also plan on bringing my father back alive." And he sat back down with many confused people looking at him.

"Thank you for that statement Mr. Valentino." Chiron said "Continuing with the announcements. Some of you may wonder where Mr. D may be. He was called back to Olympus to see his progress on his probation. That is all and we may now begin."

The nymphs and some satyrs brought our food to the tables. Then all of us went to the braziers to give the burnt offerings. I also asked the gods to help us through this quest which I still think is impossible. We went back to our tables and while eating I was also talking to Romeo.

"Hey, who was that person who just did that speech?" I said talking back to back.

"That's the Roman way of addressing a large group of people in discussion." He told me.

"But this isn't a discussion." I pointed out. "This is lunch."

"I know." He said. "I just wanted them to know that I'm business and no one will get in my way in rescuing my dad. Not even stupid vampires."

When lunch was over, I went to my cabin to get a few things I left behind. Romeo and Oliver followed me to the cabins.

"What is your system of cabins?" Romeo asked "Because I notice that each one is very different from the other."

"Our cabins are divided by parent." I told him

"So you sleep with your siblings?" he asked "Back in our camp, we sleep in barracks with your cohort who are demigods of different parentage."

"Well, at least it's less lonely." I told him "For example, Percy is the only son of Poseidon, or Neptune as you call him, so he sleeps in Cabin Three, Poseidon's cabin, the one that looks like it was naturally formed from coral." I point it for him.

"And there is another camper, who usually comes and goes whenever he likes, named Nico di Angelo." I continued. "He's the son of Hades, or Pluto, and he stays at the cabin that looks like an entrance to the Underworld. Since, they're the only kids of the Big Three we know who lives here, they don't have any other sibling so they stay alone in their cabins. Oliver already knows this but between you and me, sometimes I see Annabeth sneak in there to 'visit' Percy at night."

"Wait, you said Nico right?" Romeo asked me.

"Yeah, why?" I asked back.

"Well, there's another Nico I know that's also a son of Pluto in our camp who also comes and goes. We usually call him the Ambassador of the Underworld."

I asked him how this other Nico looked like "Does he have olive skin, black hair, wears dark clothes and an aviator's jacket?"

"Yeah." He answered.

"Well, maybe it's the same Nico and maybe this is where he is when he's not there and he is there when we wonder why he's not here." I concluded

We finally got to my cabin, which I still think needs to be redone again because it was way too pink and Piper will agree with me on that. I told the boys to wait for me outside so I can get a few stuff. I went inside to see no one is there. They're probably doing their activities right now, I thought to myself. I walked to my trunk which is always at the foot of my bunk. I opened it up to find it empty, since I wasn't even supposed to be there right now. I pressed a secret button, which was hiding near the handle, to open the secret compartment that hid weapons designed by my genius cousins, Blaire and Blaine. I took out a small crossbow that fired special arrows they created. I also took out a ring that when you twist it, it turns into a shield. I didn't bring all of them just the things that looked essential for our survival. But the most essential thing we needed was wooden weapons and my cousins didn't make any of them in wood. I didn't also think the other Hephaestus kids had wooden weapons either. Then I thought of Oliver and the other satyrs who use wooden weapons.


	8. Diner Slash

**ROMEO**

Oliver and I were waiting outside Desiree's cabin, which was blindingly pink. We were waiting for her to come out because she was getting a few stuff to bring on this quest.

"So," Oliver said starting a conversation. "When did you and Des become so friendly?"

"Last night when she offered to make me sleep at her house, remember." I answered him.

"That, I can believe." He said "What I can't believe is that you two are too friendly. What happened last night after I left?"

"Nothing really." I said "We talked to her dad, he gave me a few bites of ambrosia, I rested for a while, ate dinner with them, and then went to my room to sleep."

His face told me he was still not convinced. "What else happened?"

"I started imagining." I told him placing my hands inside my pockets and looking at the direction of a bunch of kids playing volleyball.

"Imagining what?" he asked.

"Stuff… Me… Her." I said starting to fidget.

I could see in his expression that he solved my equation. "You're telling me you and her last night did —."

"Yeah, yeah we did it okay." I said cutting him off. "That's why we don't seem too annoyed with each other right now."

"How did you even convince her?" he asked still surprised.

"She didn't really need much of convincing." I started "I guess she was also feeling something. I don't really know."

"Was she still a —." he started to ask.

Then I saw Desiree coming out of the cabin. "Hey! You're done getting the stuff and all that." I said too excitedly.

I was so relieved that she came out of her cabin before Oliver can ask me more questions. But she just stared at me like I was crazy.

"Hey Des, have you ever —." he paused because I was signaling him behind her to not talk about our brief discussion.

Desiree turned around to face me and I calmed down. I guess she could feel I was doing something weird behind her.

She turned back around and said to Oliver "What were you going to say?"

I still kept doing the 'do not talk about it' gestures to him.

"I was just wondering if you ever tasted the pizzas at Marcelli's." he said. I was relieved that he didn't talk about our conversation.

"That's a very random question." She said "But yeah I have eaten there and their pizzas are amazing."

"Yeah, their pizzas are the best." I said awkwardly.

"Anyway, Oliver I was going to ask if the satyrs use crossbows." She said.

"We don't actually." He said "But if you're looking for arrow I think the Apollo kids may have some."

"Well of course they do but they're tipped with metal." She said "I need them to be plain wood but sharp enough to spear a monster."

"So you need wooden crossbow arrows?" Oliver asked "We actually have those. I don't know why we made them though."

We followed Oliver into the woods. Walking on the trail, we saw a tree nymph sitting on a boulder. When she saw us, she jumped off the rock and ran straight towards us. She tackle-hugged Oliver to the ground while kissing every inch of his face. They stood back up and I got a good look at the nymph. She was one or two inches shorter than Oliver. Her hair was brown like the color of bark. Her skin was a pale version of bright green and her eyes are all green.

"Oh, Olie I missed you so much." She said to him

She kept clutching on Oliver's arm like her life depended on it.

"I missed you too." He said back.

Then he realized that we were still there. "Oh guys this is my girlfriend Ash."

"Let me guess she lives in the Ash tree next to that boulder." I said.

"How did you know that?" Ash said very surprised how I knew.

"A lucky guess." I said.

"Since when do you have a girlfriend?" Desiree asked "I've been here two years and I never saw you with anyone."

"We just started dating this summer." He said eying Ash.

Desiree and I kept staring at them until he realized what we were doing here.

"Right." He said in realization and asking Ash "Have you seen Grover? We need to ask him something."

"Yeah I have." said Ash giddily. "He's just at the thrones."

We followed them deeper into the woods. We stopped at a place where there was a clearing and in the middle of that clearing are three thrones made of roots from trees. There was a faun or satyr talking to a nymph near the thrones.

"Grover! Juniper!" Ash yelled running towards them. I was a having a feeling Ash likes to run up to people when she meets them.

"Hey Ash." The satyr named Grover said. "Oliver, Desiree, and its Romeo right?"

"It is." I told him.

"So what are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"We came here to get the crossbow arrows." Oliver said. "I have to ask though, why did we make crossbow arrows? I mean we don't even use them."

Grover was walking towards a tree with a hole in its trunk. He grabbed the arrows inside of the hole and answered Oliver. "We make them for occasions like this."

He handed the arrows to Desiree and she started placing them in a container.

"What is that?" I asked her.

"I have an automatic crossbow and this is the container for the arrows." She said explaining. "Blaire and Blaine designed it. It's kind of like a crossbow machinegun. They actually made two and I have both of them. I'll just let the other one have the bronzed-tipped arrows."

I turned to Grover and asked him "I don't suppose you have a sword made of wood do you?"

"We do actually for the same purpose as those arrows." He said heading back to the hole in the tree and brought out a sword made of wood. It did not look like a wooden sword prop you use during a school play. It really looked like an actual sword; only thing is that it was wooden.

"Wow, this actually looks cool." I said wide-eyed and smiling.

"We like to call it 'Τσεκούρι'(Tsekouri)" he said. "It means —."

"Ax." Des interrupted "Doesn't it sound ironic?"

"Exactly." The nymph talking to Grover, I think her name is Juniper, said "Since axes cuts wood, now the wood can cut anything else."

"So is this all you need?" Grover asked.

"Pretty much and thank you for the weapons." I said to him with gratitude. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Well I also lost my dad and I don't want other people to experience it too. So I'm very happy to help." Grover said in response. Then I heard sobbing beside us. I looked to my side and saw that both nymphs where crying green tears.

"We all hope you'll rescue your dad and bring him back alive." Juniper said in between sobs.

"We should probably go now before it gets dark soon." Desiree said.

On our way back, Ash kept hugging Oliver all the way never letting go. It was actually very sweet to look at.

"Why can't you act like that?" I told Des teasingly.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe it's because I don't have a boyfriend." She said both irritated and sarcastic.

"You never went out with anyone?" I asked surprised because she is the daughter of a love goddess.

"I have but nothing really serious. Just ordinary dinner dates but that's it really, nothing else. The next day they go hunt for others." She said.

"That's hard to believe." I said to her.

"Well believe it." She said. "How about you? You're not dating either."

"That is true. I am not dating anyone." I said.

"I remember back in middle school that a lot of girls flock by you. Why is that?" she asked.

"Girls were flocking me because they thought I was a vampire." I told her slowly.

"What?" She said laughing.

"It all started when this vampire fad started." I told her. "It used to be cool, all the girls trying to ask you on a date. It was fun until they started asking me vampire related questions like 'Do you sparkle under the sun?' or 'Can you bite my neck?' That really annoys me."

"So that's why you don't like vampires." She said in realization.

"Pretty much." I told her. "Now I hate them even more since they kidnapped my dad."

We finally got back to the hill with the big pine tree. Des and I went inside the car, while we were waiting for Oliver to say goodbye to Ash, who was crying again. When they were finished, Oliver hopped in the driver's seat.

"Okay, where to first?" he asked.

"Can we go to Chicago first?" I asked.

"Why Chicago?" Desiree asked.

"I have this nagging in my head that keeps saying 'Go to Chicago'." I said.

"Well it's better that going nowhere." She said.

"To Chicago we go then." Oliver announced and started the car.

We were driving for a while, going out of New York. I was getting a little sleepy. So I took a nap for a while. Then the dreams started. My dream was this, there was a celebration and music was bursting everywhere. I was being dragged around by a woman with very red hair and lips, and her eyes were very gray that it almost looked black. She was smiling at me and we were going around the stalls settled in a plaza. When I was being pulled around, it did not feel like my body. I felt bigger and more mature than my teenage body. Then the woman brought me near a tree and gave me a necklace with a gold pendant with a ruby in the middle.

"Keep this until next month and you will get a surprise." She said with a French accent.

Then the dream shifted to something nice. I was in a wedding in the middle of the woods. All my friends from camp and the people from Camp Half-Blood were the guest as were the gods. Then someone tapped me from behind. When I turned around, it was Lady Juno.

"Are you ready?" she asked me.

Then all the fauns were playing music with their panpipes. On the aisle, I saw a bride in a beautiful white wedding dress. Then all of the sudden I was woken up by Desiree.

"How long have we been driving?" I asked yawning.

"Three hours." Des answered.

"Where are we already?" I asked again fully awake.

"The last sign we passed said Danville, Pennsylvania." Oliver said.

"I'm getting hungry." I told them "Is there somewhere we can eat?"

"Oh look, there's a dinner right there." Des said pointing to a dinner on the corner.

We parked the car at a nearby parking lot. We got out of the car and we walked to the dinner. When we got inside, it wasn't very packed. We sat at a booth at the very corner of the dinner. A waitress came to us and took our orders.

"Hi I'm Debby and I'll be your waitress today." She said smiling.

"Oh, hi." I said "We'll have two orders of hamburgers and a veggie burger, large fries, and three colas" I ordered for us. I looked at them for approval and both of them nodded their heads yes.

"Okay, I will be right back with your food." Debby said walking away.

"Any of you brought money?" Oliver asked.

"I always have money in my wallet." I said.

"Me too, I never leave home without it." Des said.

Oliver just shook his head "I forgot both your parents are loaded with cash."

He just laughed it out and we continued talking about random things. Then Debby came and brought our food. Then all of a sudden we hear screaming. Getting inside the dinner were three cheerleaders that were super hyper. They were wearing purple cheer uniforms. Then one of them started walking towards us.

"Excuse me." said one of the cheerleaders. She had her name embroidered on her uniform and it said Tammi.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tammi said.

"We're eating." Desiree said in exasperation.

"Well you're also sitting in our booth." Said a cheerleader named Candy.

"So you better get your butts out of there." Said another one named Minnie.

"Well were not yet done eating." I told them getting mad. "Why don't you wait somewhere else and when we're done you can take it."

"Fine." Said Tammi "But this isn't over Goth boy."

They walked to the counter, while we were finishing up our burgers. The cheerleaders kept watching us impatiently, waiting for us to hurry up. I looked at Oliver and notice that he was sweating.

"Dude are you okay?" I asked concerned "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine." He said "It's just… I don't like those cheerleaders."

"You and me both." Des said "I mean, why do they think that they rule the entire teenage population. I'm just happy the cheerleaders in our school aren't like that."

"Not just that." He said "They have a really weird smell. They kind of smell like motor oil and petting zoo at the same time."

"That's a weird smell." I said.

We continued eating until we were finished. Debby came to us and we paid for the meal. We got outside of the dinner and walked back to the car. When we got to the parking lot, someone called us out.

"Told you this isn't over yet." said the voice which was obviously Tammi's.

I turned around and said "Don't worry, were leaving the state anyway so you can have your precious booth back."

"Oh we don't want the booth anymore." said Candy. "We want something else. Something that's our mistress's sister wants back. Its round, its gold and it has a ruby in the middle."

Why does that sound familiar? I asked in my mind.

"What are you talking about?" Des asked.

"I knew they smelled funny." Oliver said.

Then all of a sudden their hair bursts into flames. Their features were the same except for their legs. One was a donkey's leg and one was made of bronze.

"Don't look at the legs!" Minnie screeched.

"Give it to us and none of you will die." screeched Tammi.

"Look, whatever you're looking for we don't have it." I slightly bluffed.

I knew what they were looking for. They were looking for the medallion. But it was true that we didn't have it. Then Candy all of a sudden was in front of me. She grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the ground.

"Too bad we have to kill you." She said with her 'nails on chalkboard voice'. "It's such a shame losing such a cute boy like you."

She was about to bite my face of when she yelled in pain. She let me go and I fell to the ground. When I looked back up, I saw that there was an arrow lodge to the side of her body. Then more arrows appeared on her chest and she exploded into flames.

I looked at the other two demonic cheerleaders and they were still in shock at the loss of their fellow monster.

"Who's next?" Desiree said holding the crossbow in her hands. Apparently she's the one who killed Candy. The statement snapped the monster backed to their senses.

"You'll pay for killing Candy." Tammy said.

Before she could lunge at me, I was able to get my gold sword and slashed at her and she also exploded into flames. Then Minnie also shrieked by the loss of Tammi. She lunged at both me and Des. Then she yelled and exploded to flames too. Then we saw Oliver with a wooden mace with spikes at the tip of it.

"That's a pretty violent weapon for a faun, I mean satyr." I told him.

"Well I'm not like the other satyrs." He told us. "Unlike them I'm a tiny bit sadistic when it comes to monsters."

"What were those things anyway?" I asked.

"Empousai." Des answered me. "Minion of Empusa, their queen. Percy actually fought these things when he was fourteen."

"Really?" I said.

"Yup. And I'm guessing by the way Tammi said mistress's sister, I'm gonna say that she's the sister of Lamia."

"So these things were also vampires with a case of a flaming bad hair day and a bad plastic surgeon?" I said irritatingly. "Gods, I really hate them right now."

"Hey guys we should really go now." Oliver said "Before anything else happens."

We got in the car and drove off.


	9. A Very Thorny Situation

**DESIREE**

We were on the road again, trying to get away from what just happened. I have never been so scared in my life, but I somehow managed to look calm, collected and confident killing Candy the empousai. Maybe it just feels weird to me because my family is never attacked by monsters outside camp.

"Dude can you slow down, we're in Ohio already." Romeo said.

"Sorry man." Oliver apologized while slowing down the car. "The whole thing still kind of freaked me out a bit."

Then Romeo faced me with anger all over his face.

"Why didn't you kill the other two when they were stunned?" Romeo asked me a little mad.

"They move too fast okay." I retorted "If I shot at them when they moved, I might have accidentally killed both of you. That's why it was easy killing Candy because she was stable and was right in front of me."

"Okay, you have a point there." Romeo said calmly. "Where are the ambrosia bars? I think I need a crumb."

"It's in your bag." I told him.

He got the bars out of his bag and took a little tiny crumb on the corner.

"Hey guys we should really find a place to stay for the night." I said yawning.

"There's a roadside inn over there." Oliver said.

The inn wasn't very small but it was very accommodating. It was called "Taxidi Inn".

"That's a really weird name for an inn." said Oliver.

"Is it an inn for taxi drivers?" Romeo said.

"Hey but if you read it in Greek, it actually says 'Travel' Inn." I said

Oliver parked the car in the parking lot. We got out and headed to the check-in counter. The guy behind the counter looked really familiar. He looks like he's in his mid-thirties. He was wearing a jogging suit and he was constantly talking to his cell phone. Then he hanged-up his phone and greeted us.

"Good evening and welcome to the Taxidi Inn in Cleveland, Ohio." He said.

"Lord Hermes?" I asked "Is that you?"

"Oh, Desiree, it's you." Hermes said "And you're with a satyr and wait, are you Roman?"

"Yes Lord Hermes or should I call you Lord Mercury." Romeo said

"I'm in my Greek form. So you can call me Hermes." Hermes said. "So, you three on a quest?"

"We are and we would like to stay here until the morning because it's getting dark and we need to sleep for the night." I said.

"You can stay here as long as you like." The god said "As long as you can pay that is."

"Great." I said cheerfully. "We can definitely pay just for the night."

Then Hermes's phone rang.

"Excuse me I need to take this." He said answering his phone.

After a few minutes he put down this phone and motioned back to us.

"That was your mother and she wants you to sleep separately from the boys." Hermes told me. "So here are the keys to your rooms. The boys will have room 2β since there are two beds in that room and you will have 3β with a single queen size bed."

He gave us the keys and we went looking for our rooms. We found our rooms which were across from each other. I got inside mine and place my bag on the chair of the coffee table. I went to the bathroom and took a shower. It was so nice feeling clean after a very eventful day. I dried myself and put on a long t-shirt which length was about half my thigh and went directly to bed.

I had a very nice dream. I was in the middle of the woods and a wedding was going on. The guests at the occasion were the gods, my friends from camp and a few others I did not recognize. At the altar, Lady Hera was there talking to the groom. Then someone tapped my back. I turned around to see my dad.

"Are you ready?" he asked me.

Then panpipe music, played by satyrs, filled the atmosphere. I just realized that I was wearing a veil. I looked down at myself and I was wearing a long white dress and I realized that I was the bride and it was my wedding. I was about to walk down the aisle when I heard a knocking sound. I woke up from my dream and heard the knocking coming from my door. I got out of bed and answered the door. Standing outside my door frame was Romeo.

"I need another stress reliever." He said.

He came inside and kissed me passionately on the lip. We were like that for a few minutes until I pulled out.

"Why so excited all of a sudden?" I asked "We were just attacked by a bunch of monsters and you want to do this?"

"I know it's very unusual." He said. "But when we did it last night, it's like all my worries washed away. It's like all of the bad things that's happening right now did not exist."

We kissed again but this time I was the one who uttered the kiss. Then we slowly moved to the bed, easing into the covers. He took my shirt off and looked at my body.

"You don't like wearing underwear when you sleep do you?" he asked.

"They feel annoying when I twist and turn." I said and continued kissing him.

He started kissing me on the neck. Then kissed lower, pausing at my chest. He continued kissing, traveling down my stomach. I squeaked when he kissed his destination.

"You may not want to play with me." He said. "But I definitely want to play with you."

Then he continued fondling his mouth all over the outside and at times in the inside. My squeaks were turning into moans, and then shifted into screams of pleasure. Then I felt a pang in my lower regions and my body was electrified by excitement. When it was over, I was breathing very deeply.

Romeo came back up and faced me. Then he positioned himself to go in me. He thrust forward and the excitement came back to my body. Once again I created my new language and was whimpering with each thrust. Then I heard him moan out loud the same time I did. He got out and looked at me with shame.

"I should have gone out sooner." He said starting to blush.

"No it's fine." I told him calmly.

"But aren't you scared you might get pregnant?" he asked me confused.

"I'm not scared because I already am. " I told him.

"Well I didn't get out on time." He said.

"I've actually been pregnant since yesterday." I said.

Then he turned paler again. Well paler than usual.

"So you saw that it broke yesterday." He said realizing what I said. "And you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad?" I asked back.

"Because I impregnated you." He said matter-of-factly.

"You know, most of my ancestors were parents by the age of fifteen." I told him.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah." I said. "But their children where demigods. I think bearing a mortal child won't be as bad as raising a demigod child."

Then I thought more about what we did.

"What are we doing?" I asked him.

"We just made love." He told me.

"Yeah I know but why are we doing this?" I said. "I mean with all that's happened lately, this would be the last thing on our list."

"Then I should get back to my room." He said scornfully, getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed..

"Please don't be mad at me." I said calmly sitting up. "I'm just stating what makes sense."

He got dressed and walked to the door. Then he turned back and faced me.

"I'm not mad at you." He sighed. "It's just… with everything going on, I just want to escaped all the bad things at least for one night with you."

Then he opened my door and closed it behind him going back to his room. I just stayed in my bed naked trying to think. But my mind was blank. Then my eyes closed and I went back to sleep. The next time I woke up it was morning. I had one of my rare cases of dreamless nights which was a little relaxing. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Since I was already naked I just went straight into the water. After taking the bath, I got dressed and prepared my things to leave. I grabbed my room key and headed out the door. When I closed my door, Oliver and Romeo were already going out. Romeo and I stared at each other with no emotions whatsoever. There was an awkward silence that Oliver broke.

"Hey guys we should probably pay for the rooms now." he said breaking the silence and we went back to the check-in counter. Hermes was still there dressed in another jogging suit.

"Good morning you three." The god greeted us. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Pretty good I guess." I said "At least we're rested."

"We'd like to check out now Lord Hermes." Romeo said.

"Okay. Would you like to pay in drachma, denarii, US dollars or credit card?" he asked.

"Which one would you prefer?" I asked

"Dollars are fine." He said. "For both your rooms, a hundred dollars each."

We paid for our rooms and was about to leave when Hermes stopped us.

"Before you leave, Romeo I have a massage from your mother." He said. "She said to go to the original branch of Marcelli's Pizzeria and ask for the owner."

"Why do we have to find the owner?" Romeo asked.

"All your mother wants me to say is that the owner is a demigod and he could help you in your quest but the rest you can find out when you get there." Hermes said.

"Thank you Lord Hermes." Romeo said and we rode back in Oliver's car.

He started the engine and we headed back in the road. After a mile we were getting hunger. We forgot that we haven't eaten anything since we left the inn.

"We could try another dinner." Oliver said.

"No. No more dinners." Romeo said sternly.

"There's a gas station with a convenient store up ahead." I said.

We stopped at the gas station. Oliver filled the car while me and Romeo went inside the store. We didn't talk much inside but we did grab a few snacks and drinks to bring. We went to the counter and paid for the items. We went outside just as Oliver was finishing up and paying the attendant. We went back inside the car and I opened one of the biscuits we bought and shared it with the boys. During the ride none of us talked. Then Oliver tried to ease the tension.

"So Romeo, when I woke up in the middle of the night, you weren't in your bed." He said.

"I was at her room." Romeo answered him.

"What were you doing in there?" Oliver asked again.

"He wanted to relieve his stress with me." I answered for Romeo.

Then there was silence again. After four hour of silence and driving, we finally made it to the "Windy City".

"Finally, Chicago, Illinois." Oliver said.

"Let's go find Marcelli's." Romeo said.

We decided to go on foot. We asked a few people were the restaurant is. Somehow the people we kept asking were also tourists. Then a man in a suit came near us.

"You three children are looking for Marcelli's Pizzeria?" he asked with a light British accent.

"Yes we are." Said Romeo happily. "Do you know where it is?"

"It's not far from here, just a couple of blocks away. I'm going there myself and I'd be happy to accompany you there." Said the British guy and we followed behind him down the sidewalk.

He was a tall man almost the height of Romeo. He had dark brown hair that was properly comb. He was probably in his mid-forties. He also looked friendly enough to be your favorite uncle.

Though he was friendly, I didn't trust him. I was reminded of what my Aunt Giselle told me about being careful with strangers and I was with this man. I was careful to trust him because we were attacked by four monsters for two days straight and if this guy is a monster, I do not want to win the record for the "demigod with the most monster attacks in consecutive days" award.

I looked at Oliver. He had his head jerked out and he was sniffing so hard his nose might probably fall off.

"Oliver, can you smell something weird about him?" I asked.

"I don't know." He said. "I can't really tell. He does have a scent but it's his cologne. But there is another scent underneath it but I can't be sure."

"Are you sure we can trust him?" I asked Romeo.

"He's trying to help us, not kill us, unlike the others." he said.

Then we turn to an alley.

"Don't worry." The British man said. "I am not going to mug you. Although it may be quite impossible since there's three of you. This is just a shortcut. The restaurant is right outside the other side of this alley."

Then we suddenly stopped.

"Why did we stop?" asked Romeo.

"I have to tell you the truth. I'm actually not welcomed at the pizzeria."

"What? But you said you were heading there." Romeo said starting to shout.

"I'm afraid the owner does not like me very much. He still holds a grudge on me because of what happened to his friends when they were younger." said the man sadly.

"Why? What happened to his friends?" I asked which I regretted when the words came out of my mouth.

"Oh, nothing much." The man said. "I was hunger, so I ate them."

That shocked all three of us.

"You what?" Romeo said.

Then all of a sudden a black projectile flew at me and slashed my left arm. I turned around to see what hit me. It was a foot long black spike. Then I saw more coming toward our direction. Romeo and Oliver were already taking cover behind the dumpster and I was still in the open. I was still dodging a couple more spikes, then I was able to twist the ring on my finger and it morphed into a shield around my arm.

My cousins named it "Eκτροπέας" (Ektropeas) which means deflector. It was made with two combined metals, Celestial Bronze and an artificial metal that has almost the same ability as Adamantium from the comics which my cousins created as well.

I finally made it to the dumpster but he was still firing the spikes.

"What is that thing?" Romeo asked. "I can't get a good look at him without risking a spike in my eye."

Since I was the one with the shield I took a peek. The man's friendly face was still the same, smiling at our direction like he can't wait to see us die. But his body wasn't the same at all. The tall man was already on all four because his body was that of a huge lion. Then he also had a scorpion-like tail which was the source of the spike.

"You can't hide behind that dumpster forever." He said.

"Why can't he just go near us and finish us already?" Oliver asked slightly whimpering.

"He needs a good range for those spikes of his, plus his also playing with us." I told him.

"What is he exactly?" Romeo asked again.

"He's a manticore." I said figuring out what he was.

I really didn't want to hide behind this dumpster already. I took out my crossbow with the bronze tips and counterattacked his spikes.

"Here, hold this for me and shield me while I shoot this guy." I commanded Romeo.

He did what he was told and I was aiming at the monster. It was a little hard to do since my crossbow was inferior to his tail but we needed to find a way to at least attack him. Once in a while my arrows would stick to his body but all it did was make him wince and made him shoot more spike at us.

Then behind the beast, I saw a door open and a man came out. The monster did not notice him coming out because he was having too much fun trying to kill us. I wanted to scream at the man to run away but I did not want to risk the manticore seeing and killing him.

"What's that guy doing?" Oliver asked. "He's going to get himself killed."

I got back behind the dumpster and Romeo followed.

"It's no use." I said. "My arrows are way too small to kill him."

Then we heard the monster cry out in pain. All three of us risked going out from the safety of the dumpster to see the scene. The beast wasn't facing us anymore. He was already facing the man, who got out from the door, shooting at him with his machinegun of a tail. I was scared for the man's life but he handled it pretty well.

I was guessing this man was a demigod. First thing I notice is that he wasn't afraid of the monster. Second, he was pretty good at throwing his spears to kill the beast. And the most obvious is that he can see the manticore.

We went back to hiding behind the dumpster because spikes were coming back at us. Apparently that thing can shoot spikes in different directions. Then the last thing we heard was a terrible roar and then silence. We came back out from the dumpster and the ground was covered in yellow dust. The man was still standing tall in the same spot he was holding his spear and shield. He still had a few more spears leaning on the wall.

"Are you kids alright?" he asked us.

"Were fine just a few scratches from the spikes." Romeo said.

"Thank you for saving us." I said to him gratefully. "Can we ask who you are?"

"I'm Orfeo Valentino, son of Bellona, goddess of war. But you can just call me Feo." Feo said. "I'm also the owner of Marcelli's Pizzeria."


	10. A History Lesson From My Uncle

**ROMEO**

I was surprised when I heard Feo say his last name. I know there are many different Valentinos that are not related to me. But it's a little weird that we have the same surname. The weirder thing was we were both Roman demigods. We both came from Camp Jupiter. And both our mothers are war goddesses.

We followed him inside his restaurant and to his upstairs apartment. He gave us one ambrosia biscotti that the three of us shared and three small glasses of nectar. He was also bandaging Oliver's wounds. We didn't realize that Oliver was badly injured.

"Who are you kids anyway?" Feo asked. "It's pretty obvious that the two of you are demigods and you are definitely a faun."

"I'm actually a satyr." said Oliver. "If I was a faun I wouldn't be on this quest."

Then he went to sleep on the bed he was put on.

"Well that is true." Feo said. "And you young lady?"

"I'm Desiree Jones, daughter of Aphrodite." She said hesitating to say either Aphrodite or Venus. I can guess why she was hesitating. Feo wasn't used to the idea that the Greek and the Romans could work together. She was just careful what to say but she stuck with her heritage.

"You're Greek." Feo said. "Well no need to worry. I don't mind where a demigod comes from. We're technically all the same. Back when I was younger, about fifteen, when I was already a legionnaire, I had a few camp friends who lived in the same area I used to live in on the other side of the city. My family already moved to this part of the city and this restaurant was already a huge success. So my friends wanted to visit me and taste our pizza. The day they visited, we accidentally ran into a Greek demigod and then my friends started a fist fight with him but I didn't get involved. Since it was three against one, excluding me, the boy didn't stand a chance. My friends' parents picked them up and I helped that Greek boy into the kitchen and helped him with the black eye on his face. After that happened, we became friends ever since, though he was five years younger than me, that didn't stop us. Now he lives in Boston, working as a homicide detective."

The last statement he said reminded me of Detective Jones who was Desiree's uncle.

"What was his name?" Des asked curiously.

"Parker Jones." Feo said.

"Oh my gods." Des exclaimed. "That's my uncle."

"Really? Well then, it's nice to meet another family member of his." Feo said smiling. "My little brother actually became best friends with his brother, Duane, in college. In fact they were roommate."

"That's my dad." Des exclaimed again.

My dad was best friends and roommates with Desiree's dad back in college. I thought to myself.

"What was the name of your little brother?" I asked curiously.

"Tony. Sadly I haven't seen my brother since our father's funeral sixteen years ago." Feo said sadly. "Wait I forgot to ask your name."

"My name is Romeo Valentino, son of Minerva and Tony Valentino." I said almost crying.

"You're my little brother's son? How old are you?" he asked me.

"Fifteen." I told him.

He stood up from his seat and hugged me. I actually hugged him back. The thought of having another family member related to my dad overjoyed me.

"I can't believe my brother had a son and he didn't even tell me." He said slightly crying.

"My dad never even mentioned you either." I told him.

Then my uncle started to frown. "That's actually understandable. He doesn't really want to remember his past."

"Why?" I asked remembering the times I asked my dad about our family and him never answering those questions.

"How about we talk about in the restaurant? It's already lunch time and you are probably hunger." My long lost uncle said.

"Wait what about me?" Oliver said sitting up.

"Don't worry goat boy." My uncle said. "I'll ask one of the bus boys to bring you some food. Just make sure you hide your feet and legs."

We went downstairs to the restaurant. The place was filled with people eating the delicious pizza. Most of the people eating were families and groups of friends. Every time we pass a table they always greet Feo or compliment him that the food taste even better than the last time they ate it. We sat at a booth which seems to be more isolated than the others. Seeing the booth reminded me about our attack back in Pennsylvania.

"This booth will prevent people from listening to our conversation." Uncle Feo said also ordering food for us and to bring some to Oliver in the apartment.

Then he said "Before I answer your question about why your dad doesn't talk about his past. Let me give you a little history about our family starting with your grandfather, Massimo Valentino. He used to be one of the best in combat during World War II and one of the youngest, though he was a little late in entering the army."

Then I was starting to imagine my grandfather back when he was younger during the war inside my head like a mini movie for my brain.

Uncle Feo continued. "He joined the army in 1944 when he was eighteen and he was the youngest in his unit. See, there were many unknown heroic stories the country doesn't know about. One of those stories was about your grandfather. He was assigned to an assault mission to destroy an Axis base, which was secretly creating bombs to use against the Allied forces. Now, the base wasn't exactly guarded because it's not supposed to exist to us. But we found it anyway without the Axis knowing about it. So the commanding officer of the unit sent three of their best soldiers for the mission, twenty year old, Arnold Walberg, twenty-one year old Kevin Samuels and eighteen year old Massimo Valentino. The base was in a forest in the middle of nowhere in Romania. They used a small plane to fly into the air space of the country, barely able to keep it flying while being shot at. Kevin was the one who piloted the plane so as to not risk any other pilot. Then all three of them jumped off then plane and parachuted to the ground near the base."

"Wait how does this help me learn about my family either that my grandpa was awesome?" I asked.

"When you let me finish the story it will be relevant." Feo said. "As I was saying, when they got to the facility, there were barely any guards. The few they found were asleep and they shot them dead."

"Okay, I know those people were working for the Axis but that's just wrong." Desiree said.

"Think about it." My uncle said. "They were going to destroy the place full of explosives. If any of the bombs exploded the burning will hurt more and since they were already asleep it's like nothing happened really, just instant death. Going back to the story, they roamed all around the facility killing everyone they saw passing by. Then they finally got to the area where they were creating the explosives. All three of them were pretty good marksmen, so they shot all the workers just at the top railings without being notice. Then a really big guard, the size of a Minotaur, found them. He knocked out Kevin and shot Arnold on the leg. Your grandfather was swifter than the guard. He made the guard chase him around the railings. Though he was punched several times at the back, but he was able to escape the torment. The guard almost fell off the rails and he was still unbalance of the edge of the steel floor. So Massimo hanged from a pipe hanging above his head, lifted his body up, thrust his feet forward and kicked the guard of the rail. The guard fell on one of the finished bombs and accidentally activating it. The alarms went off and Massimo heard footsteps frantically running, getting outside the building. They only had thirty minutes to leave before the bomb exploded. He slung Kevin on his shoulders and helped Arnold stand up. He asked Arnold to help him with Kevin."

"But Arnold's leg got shot. How did he help carry Kevin?" I asked.

Then Uncle Feo answered. "Well at first he didn't like it but they had no choice. Kevin was pretty knocked out. Arnold was technically limping and leaning on Kevin while carrying him. Massimo was trying to carry both weights because when Arnold starts leaning unto Kevin, the weight of both bodies was felt on Massimo's shoulders. They escaped back to the route they took getting in and kept walking until they saw a helicopter which was in a safe distance from the facility."

"There were helicopters in the forties?" Des asked.

"There were but just early models." Said Feo. "Continuing on, they were just a couple of meters away when the base exploded causing all three of them to fall to the ground from the shock wave. Massimo didn't want to give up so he stood back up, helped Arnold stand up and both of them carried Kevin who was still incapacitated. Then they finally reached the helicopter. They put Kevin in first, then Arnold and last was Massimo. When they came back to their base, medics came to get Kevin who was still unconscious, and Arnold. Massimo tried to stand up but couldn't. Another set of medics came and got him. In the infirmary, he was lying on his stomach. A nurse came in and told him his back was badly bruised from being punched on the back multiple times. The shock wave made it worst causing him to have partial paralysis on his legs. So after a few weeks in the infirmary, he was relieved and was ordered to go back home. It took him six years to heal and to start walking again."

"Was grandpa a demigod?" I asked.

"No. He was a hundred percent mortal." He answered me. "Continuing with the story, he was getting bored just staying in the house, so he decided on creating this exact restaurant. His parent didn't mind the idea and lent him the money. He found this building on the opposite side of the city where he lived. The money his parent gave him was enough to purchase the building. He worked night and day, asking friends from the neighborhood to help him with the restaurant. By the start of the summer, he had his grand opening and it was an instant hit. Since he was so caught up with the restaurant he never thought about dating. Then the year before I was born he met Bellona."

"How come she didn't meet him earlier? I mean he was a war hero and she would have met him sooner." Des asked.

"She was actually waiting for him to heal and also waited for the business to grow." My uncle answered. "So anyway, they started dating and the year after that I was brought to my dad's footsteps."

"Just like me." I said. "But did he know that she was a goddess?"

"My father did know and just rolled with it." He said. "Then when I was three he started dating my mortal stepmother Elise Russo. They got married two years later and then your father was born. Your father and I helped around the restaurant. Then when I was twelve and he was seven, our mother died from heart failure. Then when I turned thirteen I was sent to camp, which upset him even more because he couldn't come. I came back home every start of school and I noticed that he was becoming very distant from me and my father. When I graduated college at camp, I came back and worked at restaurant. Your dad was already a senior in high school. There was one time that Tony and dad were arguing about where Tony wanted to go to college. Dad wanted him to go the University of Chicago but Tony wanted to go the Harvard. Actually he was already accepted at Harvard and dad got even mad. That's when he started ignoring both dad and I. The day after his graduation, he just left and never came back again. The last time I saw him was six years after, when dad died. He was at the funeral and when I talked to him he wasn't ignoring me anymore but he was still reserved and private about those six years I haven't seen him. He was still in school, studying law. He said after the funeral he was leaving to meet his girlfriend, Miala, in Chinle. Then I never saw him again." The he asked me sadly. "That wasn't Minerva was it?"

"No it wasn't. But for what it's worth, I think dad never forgot about both you and grandpa." I said trying to cheer him up. "Ever since I was five years old, both of us always celebrated my birthday at the Boston branch of Marcelli's."

"Really?" he asked smiling.

"Yeah. Every year." I told him.

He grinned wider and I also smiled.

"I have a question." Desiree said to my uncle. "Why did your dad name it Marcelli's?"

"When dad was deciding the menu choices, he decided to use recipes from his grandfather back from the old country and my great-grandfather's name was Marcelli." Feo said. "Romeo I really have to ask how your father is doing. I really do miss him."

I started playing with my napkin. I was starting to like my uncle and I don't want him to become upset that dad was kidnapped by a monster. He didn't deserve that information. He never knew anything about dad for the past sixteen year and to find out that a monster forcefully took his younger brother. It will break his heart.

"Maybe we should get back to the apartment." Desiree said. "So we can check on Oliver and talk some more."

We got out of the booth and made our way back to the apartment. We went to the living room and talked.

"Did anything happen with Tony?" Uncle Feo asked concerned.

I was still quiet. I really did not want to talk about it. It's just not right telling him.

"Romeo you need to tell him. He needs to know." Des told me.

I breathed in deeply and I sat straight in my chair and told my uncle what happen.

"You're going to be really upset when I tell you this." I started. "But dad was kidnapped by a monster."

To prevent him from bursting out, I gave him the letter my dad gave me.

"Here read this." I told him. "It explains everything. Well most of them."

He was reading it frantically with his eyes. Then he gave me back the letter and sighed. I didn't know what was going on in his head right now. I couldn't tell his emotions either.

"This is actually the reason why we're on a quest." Des told my uncle. "We are suppose to bring back her medallion and hope that she gives us back Romeo's dad."

"How will you find it?" asked my uncle. "It's lost in a canyon."

"I know a girl named Hazel Lévesque." I said. "She's the daughter of Pluto and she can control metals from the earth."

"A daughter of Pluto." He said shocked. "I thought the big three had an oath to not have children anymore after the war."

Then Desiree spoke. "I'm not sure if you've heard this but a couple of years ago there was a second titan war. I've only heard stories at my camp. I'll just skip to the ending. After the titans were defeated again, by a demigod named Percy Jackson, the gods offered him immortality but he refused the offer. Instead, he asked that all the gods will recognize all their children and he also relieved the big three of their oath."

"This boy removed their oath?" my uncle asked. "Just because he rescued Olympus."

"Not only did he rescue Olympus, he also defeated Kronos himself." She concluded.

I've only met Percy once at Camp Half-Blood. He was a really cool guy, also a like goofy and the camp seems to know him as their leader. I knew that he was strong enough to fight a god but a titan is like epic. I have found a new respect for the guy.

"So this Hazel will help you find this medallion?" he asked me.

"Yes." I said firmly.

"And how do you expect to go from California and Arizona with enough time to search for it?" he asked me again.

"She was a really fast horse." I told him. "His name is Arion and it was a son of Neptune. Trust me, this horse is insanely fast. I rode him once just to time how fast he could run the whole circumference of the camp. I got sick after that ride and had to puke out my lunch. But he ran in less than a second."

"Wow, that horse is fast." Des exclaimed.

"Well I go to do a few errands." Feo told us. "Just stay here until I get back, got it."

"We got it." I said.


	11. Fly Me To Camp Jupiter

**DESIREE**

Feo left the apartment and we were left alone. Oliver was still sound asleep on the bed. But the empty plate beside it said that he woke up to eat.

"I wonder where he's going." I asked Romeo wondering where his uncle would go.

"I don't know." Romeo said with a small smile.

"You're happy that you found a new family member aren't you?" I said.

"Yeah I am." He said smiling wider.

Then we heard stirring from the bed. Oliver was waking up. He sat up and tried to move but he winced in pain. His leg was really badly injured.

"It still hurts?" Romeo asked.

"Yeah." He answered disappointingly. "Now I'm no use at all in the quest."

"I don't want to sound mean but he's got a point." I said. "We can't bring him during the quest anymore."

"There has to be a way." Romeo said thinking.

"No, dude, she's right." Oliver said "My leg is pretty bad. I'll risk getting both of you killed if you carry me around."

Then the door opened. Feo came back already.

"Feo can we ask you a favor." I said.

"Sure." He said.

"Can you take care of Oliver while we continue on the quest?" I asked. "He is in no shape to come with us and kill monsters."

"Of course I will." He answered. "It's a good thing I anticipated that because these are for you."

He handed us two airplane tickets to San Francisco.

"Since Oliver is your driver and he is not fit to drive right now, and both of you have no licenses, I thought those might help make your quest a little faster."

Romeo and I just stared at the tickets and smiled. I hugged Feo and thanked him.

"Thank you so much" I said again.

"Yeah this will really help make this quest faster." Romeo told his uncle.

"Well you two better get ready. Your plane takes off in an hour. I'll drive you to the airport." Feo said.

We rushed to get our things ready. Oliver told us to bring his bag and he also wished us luck. We met Feo outside the front entrance of the restaurant. We got in his car and headed to the airport.

"Will the airport metal detectors alarm with our weapons?" Romeo asked his uncle.

"No." his uncle answered. "The Mist can handles that, so all your metal weapons are safe. If the guards look through your bags, the Mist will just make it look like something that you usually bring on an airplane."

We finally got to the O'Hare International Airport just in the nick of time. We said our goodbyes to Feo and we headed inside the airport. I was a little nervous getting into the security check, but we finally got through. We took our seats in the waiting area.

"It's kind of weird going to back to camp so early." Romeo told me. "I mean I just left like what, two week ago."

"How do you think I felt back at my camp?" I said.

"Well at least they knew you were coming. My camp will find out when I get there." he said. "It's also a little uncomfortable going there with you. Your camp seems comfortable with me going there, but I don't know about my camp. There are a few who made friends with a couple of Greeks but they're just a handful. Like the girl I've been mentioning Hazel and another guy named Frank Zhang, they were actually friends with Percy. Nico is even Hazel's brother. One of our praetors, Jason Grace, also had Greek friends. I think one was your counselor Piper McLean and a guy named Leo Valdez. His sister Thalia is even a Greek. Those were the only people I know who like the Greeks."

I was surprised by the names he mentioned that were from my camp. None of them really told us that, especially to the newer campers after the last Giants war. Most of the names he mentioned were also cabin counselors too.

"I also know one person who absolutely hates your kind, our augur, Octavian. He really hates your people. During the Giants war that happened years ago, he hated the idea that the Romans and the Greeks had to work together. He still hates it that we still trust you."

Okay, I don't know this Octavian guy but by the way Romeo is talking about him, he is really getting into my nerves. I mean our kind collaborated with his kind to save the world and they won. But he still doesn't trust us? That makes no sense. After a couple of years without bad blood from one another he still thinks we'll backstab them? I mean really.

"The worst part about him is that he has a way with word and getting the attention of the audience. I'm not saying he's a good performer. What I'm saying is that he knows how to make people agree with his statement by twisting what other people say which he does not agree with. Since you're coming with me and were going on a quest, he'll find a way to make you look bad. Like how you're Greek and we shouldn't trust you, and how I'm incompetent and should let other people have this quest to rescue my dad. Most people in my camp hate him but he is more powerful than some of us in his own devious way."

The intercom announced that our plane was ready and we headed to it. We found our seats and got ready for the plane to fly. While we were in the air, both of us dozed off. I rested my head on Romeo's shoulders. Just my luck my dreams appeared as they always do.

I was back at home. My dad was pacing around the living room. I couldn't see Donny anywhere. Then when I spoke, I had a male voice. The voice was also Donny's. I realized that I was borrowing Donny's body to see what's happening at home. I guess the twin telepathy thing does exist.

"Dad can you please stop pacing?" I or he said. "You've been pacing around the room for two days now."

"I know." Dad said. "I'm just worried about her. She could have at least IMed me so she can tell us that she's fine."

"Dad you don't have to worry." Donny said reassuringly. "She's not like the other Aphrodite kids. She knows how to fight. The four of you taught us how to fight when we were young. You even made us take every martial art and weapons skills known to man and immortals. So I'm pretty sure that she can handle her situations."

I was happy that my brother thinks that I can handle dealing with monsters. I was also sad to know that he isn't as worried as dad was. Dad really is so worried about me that I wished that I didn't go on this quest. My family has never been in situations like I'm in right now since ancient times. I'm the first one to do something drastic and dangerous. The oath helps protect the family from harm of monsters and other things from happening. My ancestor who started the whole thing was really specific with the entire oath. She even asked that we were not allowed to die, only until we were very old. So every time I have a fatal injury it heals itself or say a deadly strike from a weapons is about to decapitate you, there is this weird force, which I can't explain, that seems to stop the weapon and making it drop to the floor. But if you get minor ones, like a paper cut, they still stay open because it's not life threatening.

Then my dream shifted. I was in a desert, actually a canyon near its cliff.

"HELLO!" I screamed. I don't know why I did that. No one was even here.

"HELLO…...!" My echo answered back.

"HELLO!" I screamed again. Then the oddest thing happened. My echo responded "HI!"

I was sure it was my voice but the words were different. I was about to say something else when I felt a thud that woke me up. We've already landed in San Francisco. Romeo was already awake in his seat beside mine.

"Had any dreams?" he asked.

"Yup." I answered. "How about you?"

"As always." he responded.

We headed out the plane and the airport. Then we took a taxi to Berkeley. During our taxi ride we were talking about our dreams.

"Wait you said 'Hello' but your echo said 'Hi'?" he asked.

"Yeah weird right." I said.

"Mine was bazaar." He said. "I think I know how dad knows Lamia."

"Really? How?" I asked genuinely curious.

"My dream told me." He answered. "I was my dad in my dream. Remember my uncle said my dad dated a woman named Miala. Well if you place the 'la' at the beginning of the name, it's actually Lamia. I was supposed to meet her at her house. I went to a bookstore to buy a book because my dream self wanted to read and cuddle with her. Then I met a woman with dark hair and stormy gray eyes. She saw the medallion I was wearing and she said that I should throw it away because it will only cause me my doom. I was captivated by this woman. I was instantly into her. But since my dream self was in a relationship I didn't listen to her. I was walking toward her house about a couple of yards away. Then I say an ugly bat with a snake tale through the window. I stopped before I got any closer. She was talking to someone inside really loudly so even though I was still far I could hear what she was saying. She was saying it's almost time for my snack to arrive and it's been a long time since I've tasted the blood of a young man. Then a second voice sounded which was male. It said how would you know it is him? Then the monster said that I gave him the medallion a few days ago. That's when my dream self realized that his girlfriend was a blood sucking monster. I turned back around and headed home. I got in my car and headed to the desert, to a canyon cliff. I rip the medallion off my neck saying to it I will never want to see you again. I threw it hard enough to fall into the cliff hoping that his monster ex-girlfriend will not use it again to harm other young men like me. Then I heard the weirdest noise. It was like the wind was shrieking. Kind of like when someone doesn't get something and they yell no very dramatically. That's what it sounded like. Then the plane landed and I woke up."

"So at least that answers how your dad knew her." I said. "And apparently your dad can see through the Mist."

"Seems like it." He said. "Oh, this is us."

He told the taxi driver to stop at the entrance of the Caldecott Tunnel. The taxi driver didn't ask why two teenagers would stop at a tunnel. We just paid the fare and he drove off. We headed toward two kids guarding the tunnel. There was a girl who was a little shorter than the guy she was with. The girl was probably our age or maybe a year older. She had dark skin and curly dark hair. The boy with her was tall and muscular but somehow his cute baby face matches his body.

"Yes, Hazel and Frank are on guard duty today." Romeo exclaimed.

I guess that was their names. We walked up to Hazel and Frank with no hesitation.

"Hey Romeo!" Frank greeted him.

"Romeo!" Hazel said. "What are you doing here? Isn't school starting already?"

"Really guys? You can't get rid of me that easily." Romeo said jokingly.

All of them laughed while I was standing beside Romeo awkwardly. Then Romeo seemed to remember that I exist.

"Oh guys this is my neighbor, Desiree." He said introducing me.

"Are you the same girl that constantly annoys him?" Hazel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh absolutely." I said. "But we made up for those ten years."

"Really?" Frank asked "How do you make up for ten years of hatred?"

I was about to answer him when Romeo cut me off.

"You really don't want to know." Romeo said. "So can we go in?"

"Um… Romeo?" Hazel said. I think she was asking Romeo if I was safe to go in.

"Oh it's cool." He said. "She's a demigod from Camp Half-Blood."

"Really?" Frank asked again. "So you know Percy."

"I do." I said. "He is our leader there after all."

"I should probably let you go to Reyna and Jason." Hazel said.

We went inside, leaving Frank to guard the entrance by himself. We were walking in a cave like tunnel. At the end of the tunnel there was a river surrounding a Roman city. We headed to a bridge to cross it. I was amazed at how Romeo's camp looked like. It was like I just time traveled back to ancient Rome. The only thing that told me it wasn't was the clothes the people were wearing. The people there were all wearing purple shirts and all of them were also looking at my direction. Some of the people that were staring at me seem to be transparent.

"Are those ghosts?" I asked.

"Don't worry they're just lares." Hazel told me.

"They're kind of like household gods for a family." Romeo explained.

Then he knitted his eyebrows. "Hazel I have to ask. Why were you and Frank guarding the entrance? Both of you are centurions."

"We're kind of placing all the centurions on guard duty because we were noticing that every new arrival, ever since Percy, have been attacked by monsters heading toward the entrance. Remember when you got here, you were chased by a Chimera? So we've been placing all the best legionnaires to guard it. I know it's kind of late to do it, but at least we are doing it. It makes the job of the new comers easier because someone is helping them fend off whatever monster is chasing them." She answered.

"Look Jason's right there." Hazel said pointing to a boy with blonde hair and was also wearing a cape the same color as everybody's t-shirt.

"I should go back to Frank." Hazel said but Romeo grabbed her hand.

"No I need you at the senate meeting." Romeo said.

Hazel didn't even argue. She just said alright and said nothing else. We walked to this Jason fellow and he saw us and waved at us. Romeo and Hazel waved back, while I just followed them walking.

"Romeo, aren't you a little early at camp." Jason said. "As I can remember, the next summer is still in nine months."

Okay, he saying nine months just reminded me of my pregnancy. But I just concentrated on the business at hand. Then Jason looked at me.

"I haven't seen you here before." He said. "And you're a little old to be new and I wasn't alerted by a monster attacking a new comer."

"No I'm not new at the demigod thing." I told him. "I'm actually from Camp Half- Blood."

Jason stood up straighter when I told him where I came from.

"You three follow me to our office." He said. "Flavius! Call Reyna and tell her to get to the office now."

The boy named Flavius ran the other direction we were going to call this Reyna person. We headed to a building with huge pillars and entered a room with gold and silver dogs glaring at us when we entered. After a few minutes a girl with dark hair and intimidating eyes wearing the same cape as Jason entered the room and the hounds softened their expressions.

"Why did you call me Jason?" she asked insistently at Jason. "I was in the middle training the new _probatios._"

I was guessing this girl was Reyna. Then she noticed that Jason wasn't the only person in the room.

"Romeo why are you here?" she asked insistently again to Romeo. "Summer isn't until a couple of months. And Hazel why aren't you guarding the entrance?"

Man, this girl needs to have a relaxing spa day. If she keeps stressing herself, she'll look older than she really is. But that's what you get for running a camp full of mostly hyperactive kids.

"And who are you?" she asked glaring at me like I just did something wrong.

"Okay why don't we start with asking who she is, asking Romeo what his doing here early and then ask Hazel why she's not at the entrance." Jason said calmly while Reyna breathed deeply and sat on the chair in front of the desk beside Jason's.

"Okay now please answer the question who are you?" Reyna asked a little more calmly.

"I'm Desiree Jones and I'm from Camp Half-Blood." I started. "I'm the daughter of Aphrodite, granddaughter of Apollo, great-granddaughter of Athena, great, great-granddaughter of Hephaestus…"

I don't know why I kept continuing. I think I'm trying to tell them that I'm related to all the gods so don't disrespect me. But I don't know.

"Okay stop." Reyna said firmly raising her hand the way a traffic enforcer would stop traffic.

"Are you related to all the gods?" Jason asked.

I nodded my head yes. "Olympian and Minor. The only god I'm not directly related to is Zeus. I think that's why my family is not tortured by Hera."

"You kind of sound like Frank." Hazel said. "Only he's family seem to skip a few generations of demigods."

"Really? Frank?" I asked. "I know that my family isn't the only one like this but I never met anyone else."

"Getting back to the matter at hand." Jason said. "Romeo why are you here early?"

Romeo didn't answer. Instead he gave his dad's letter to Jason, like he always does so he won't have to explain. It took Jason a while to finish but he did read the whole thing.

"So you're on a quest to rescue your dad?" Jason said.

"I am and I kind of need Hazel." Romeo said.

Hazel looked surprised by his statement.

"Why do you need me?" she asked.

"To help me find the medallion of Lamia." Romeo answered. "My dad threw it away in a canyon. It's made of gold and there's a ruby in the middle. Since you can control treasures of the earth, maybe you can sense it and we can find it faster."

"Then we need to have a senate meeting for this." Reyna said. "Arrius!"

Then a ghost or a lar appeared behind Reyna.

"You called my dear praetor?" Arrius said.

"Yes." She said. "Call all the centurions for an emergency senate meeting. You have an hour to gather them at the senate house."

Arrius bowed and disappeared to call the other centurions.


	12. My Mother And That Horse

**ROMEO**

Today was not a great day for me. First, I had this weird vampire nightmare the night before. Then by morning, dad told me he'll be leaving for a business trip next week. After getting to school I was distracted the entire day and I didn't want to be bothered by Desiree. I think she got the picture and she didn't annoy me. Then at the mall when that guy was following us. Then when we got to the parking lot, the guy still followed us and I told him to back off. Then he tells me that his mistress kidnapped my dad. He wanted to get something I don't even know what it was. After that he transformed into an ugly bat thing that apparently was an ugly vampire. Then I found out that my best friend was half goat and my neighbor/enemy was a Greek demigod. When I got home, I found everything inside my house was trashed but at least nothing was stolen. Then I broke down crying for my dad, which was not so manly in front of a girl. I may not like her but she's still a girl. The only thing that wasn't so bad was I found out Desiree had a heart. She offered to let me stay at her house for a while because to be honest I don't think I can stay in this house without crying every day. I was just lucky it was Saturday tomorrow. I wanted to be depressed without being disturbed.

I was getting a few things from my room, which was also trashed, and I notice a piece of paper I did not place on my bed side table. Inside the paper was a note. It took me a while to read it but it said:

"Dear Romeo,

You may be wondering what's going on. If I survive this situation, I will tell you everything, but right now you have to help me. I am being kidnapped by Lamia the vampire and I don't know where she is taking me. I know how much you hate vampires and this is a good opportunity to kill some. If you were attacked by some of her minions then I think you get the picture. All they want is a medallion I threw away a year before your mother brought you to me. If you're wondering where it is, it's somewhere in Chinle, Arizona. I threw it at the Chelly Canyon. If you could try to find it, you could rescue me. But if you can't and I'm not forcing you to find it, well let's just say that yesterday was the last time you'll ever see me. I love you son and don't you forget that.

P.S.

If you are trying to find me, the best way to destroy her minions are wood, any kind of wood. So I advise you to be near trees if they attack. But if you're planning on killing Lamia herself, you need to get branches from the oldest tree in the place she lives in.

With all the love in the world,

Dad"

I place the note in my pocket and gathered the rest of my stuff in a bag. I went down stairs to find that Oliver already left and Desiree was waiting for me at my upside down living room.

"Are you ready?" she asked me with sincerity.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I said still a little stunned by the letter my dad wrote.

We walked to her house which is just next door. When we went inside, her dad attacked her with a bear hug and I can tell she couldn't breathe. When her dad brought her back down, she motioned to me and we headed to their living room.

"So, what brings you to our home Romeo?" her dad asked.

"There was a break-in in our house and everything was turned upside down." I told them.

"Should we call the cops? Did they steal anything?" her dad asked starting to sound concerned.

"No, it's fine. The house was already like that when I got home and it's a good thing nothing was taken." I said.

"Um… dad, we were wondering if he could stay here for a while, while we try to fix his house." Des asked her dad's permission.

"By all means necessary, but I have to ask, where your father is." He asked me.

I wasn't in the mood to talk about it. But Desiree stepped in for me.

"The break-in wasn't the worst part." She started "Mr. Valentino was also kidnapped."

"What?" Dr. Jones said shocked "Then we better call the police or Parker in case something tragic might happen to him."

He tried to reach for the phone but I stopped him.

"Mortal police can't help us." I said "Only our kind can."

"What do you mean our kind?" Donny asked.

"Before my dad was kidnapped, he wrote me this letter." I handed the letter to Dr. Jones. When he read the letter, he came to a realization.

"You're a demigod?" he asked me.

"I am. I'm the son of Minerva." I confessed. "I also know that all your family members are Greek demigods."

"Guilty." Desiree confessed

"Wait, you're Roman right? Because Minerva is Roman for Athena." Donny asked me again and I nodded my head yes.

"Is your dad…" he couldn't continue.

"A demigod?" I finished for him. "No, he's not. He's one-hundred percent mortal."

Dr. Jones nodded. "Then how did he get involved with Lamia?"

"You're dad was kidnapped by an ugly snake-bat monster lady?" Donny said in shock.

"I don't know how he got involved with her but I plan to find out." I told him. I stood up too fast and my whole body was in pain.

"You should sit back down." Dr. Jones told me "Donny, go get me some ambrosia bars from the fridge."

Donny went to the kitchen and came back with a container filled with ambrosia bars. He gave me portions of the treat and I started feeling better when I ate it. Desiree also took tiny portions. Being knock down hard a couple of times could really hurt.

"Okay, that's enough." said Dr. Jones stopping me from eating the whole thing. "You know eating too much will disintegrate you."

He took back the food and placed the container on the table.

"What happened to make you hurt like this?" he asked me as he was a medical doctor after all.

"We were attacked by one of her minions at the mall." I told him.

"What do you mean 'we'? Were you there too?" he motioned to his daughter.

"I actually killed it." She told him.

"That was the very first attack we ever had outside camp borders." He said stunned.

"Technically, the attack was meant for him." she pointed at me like it was my fault, which somehow was. "I was just extra help."

"Look, I'm really tire and sore. Can I rest for a bit?" I asked them.

"Well, you're in luck we have a guest bedroom right next to Desiree's room." Their dad told me "Des, why don't you show our guest his room?"

"Come on, right this way." She called me.

I followed her upstairs. I saw a room filled with girly stuff, which I knew was hers. Across her room was a room filled with posters of musical bands and an electric guitar, which I was guessing was Donny's, unless Apollo was staying at their house and not in Olympus, which I doubted. Right beside Des' room was a room that looked like any other hotel suite.

"Well, this is the guest bedroom." She showed me in. "Make yourself comfortable, you have your own bathroom, which is right there, and dinner will be served pretty soon. So, we'll just call you."

She left my room and I lay down on the bed just thinking about how the day went. I still can't believe that my dad was kidnapped by annoying ancient vampires. I still can't believe my best friend's lower half is a goat. And I definitely can't believe how nice Desiree was treating me. I must really be that much of a wreck for her to be sweet to me, which really sucked. She's only nice to me because my dad was captured, she could have been nice to me several years ago. But no, the only time she shows me kindness is when I'm vulnerable.

Then I heard a light knock on my door.

"Come in." I said to the knocker. It was Desiree.

"Dinner's ready. With all the excitement today, you have to be starving." She told me.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until we made it to the backyard where they prepared the table. The smell of grilled meat made my stomach absolutely grumble.

"Sit any where you like." Dr. Jones offered me.

I sat on the chair which was beside hers. I ignored that thought by looking at the food on the table.

"Wow, I haven't had a cooked dinner since dad got elected DA." I said sadly remembering those days.

Then I noticed beside the table was a flaming brazier.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"Oh, I guess you don't do this at the Roman camp." Dr. Jones said "Well, the brazier is for an offering to the gods. We give a portion of our food and we burn it in here. Let me go first so you can see."

He stood up, took a big meaty piece of rib and threw it in the blazing fire. They he yelled "To the gods!"

Donny and Desiree did the same, burning the best parts of their food in the flame. I did the same as well and I also silently prayed to my mom to help me try to rescue dad. What should have smelled of burning meat was a smell of fragrance.

"Now we can start eating." said Dr. Jones and we dug into our meals.

After dinner, I offered to help clean the plates but Dr. Jones insisted that I should get back to my room and rest. You can say it was the doctor's orders. So I did what I was told and went back to my room. I got out of my clothes and grabbed a pajama bottom to wear. I usually don't wear a shirt when I sleep. I lay down on my bed but I didn't feel like sleeping yet and I didn't want to. My nightmare last night just gave me Goosebumps. As a demigod, you usually get strange dreams that end up being real. I just witnessed that happen at the mall when we were attacked, though in my dream it was much scarier.

I heard footsteps going upstairs and doors closing. I guess everybody was hitting the hay. Then I started imagining how Desiree has changed after the years. Her body filled up pretty well. There was nothing wrong with it, well maybe that's because of her mom. But still, she looked fine. Then I was imagining her getting dressed for the night, getting ready to sleep. I was starting to feel something grow inside my pants and I cannot believe what I will be doing next. But I did need a stress reliever. I grabbed my bag, which was by the foot of my bed, to find something, and I can't believe I even found one.

I got off my bed and went out of the room quietly, trying not to wake everybody up. I slowly tip-toed to Desiree's door and I slightly opened it.

"Is someone there?" she asked. Apparently she wasn't asleep yet.

"It's just me." I answered her getting myself inside. She was just about to sleep because she was already lying in her bed, wearing a shiny lingerie-looking night gown, which made the thing in my pants hurt even more.

"What are you doing here?" she asked me confused.

"I just wanted to talk or maybe play a little." I told her and she was staring straight at my growth.

"Define playing a little." She said awkwardly.

"Honestly, I came here so you could help me out with a little… problem." I said staring at my own growth.

"You want me to help you with… that?" she said "Why, you can't do it yourself?"

"I could do it myself but I thought a little help might make it faster. Plus, I don't want to make an embarrassing stain on your sheets." I told her sounding a little sheepish right now. "You know what; I'll just do it myself. I'll do it in my bathroom so I won't stain your sheets. But I might wake both your brother and your dad. You know that bathrooms make you sound louder right?"

"That's actually more embarrassing than staining the sheet." She told me. Then the look on her face told me she was thinking.

"Fine, I'll help you." She decided "Come lay down with me."

She pulled me to her bed and she sat on top of me.

"I only have a few conditions." She told me demandingly. "One: I do not want to use my mouth. Two: forget my hands too. Tonight I'll just give you the prize directly. No need to play the rest of the game."

"Wait, have you done this before?" I asked her.

"No, I haven't actually. But I hear too many stories in the girl's locker room and most of them sound disgusting." She confessed. " Which reminds me, you are also not allowed at the back. Now it's my turn to ask. Have you done this before?"

"To be honest, no. This will be my first time too." I confessed to her and she smiled at me.

"Well, this is a very natural thing and it's more natural to guys than the girls. So I'll let you be on top of the leader board." She told me, which made me smile.

I pulled her back down and I got on top of her. I actually didn't know what to do. So first, we just started making out and touching each other. I touched her a little too low, she was not wearing something down there, and she squealed, which I think she liked and I kept doing it. Then I realized she was getting too loud. So I had to stop.

"Wait, why did you stop? It was just getting good." She said catching her breathe.

"You're getting too loud. Your family might hear you." I told her "Can you try decreasing the sound a little?"

"I'll try." She said. She did a pretty good job at trying to not make a sound. She would bite her lower lip and make an 'O' with her mouth, sometimes she whispers. But once in a while there's a loud yelp from her.

"My growth is starting to hurt." I told her in pain. "Are you sure you don't want to use your hands?"

"I am not using my hands." She told me "But maybe it's time for the grand prize."

I got the hint and tried to direct my growth in place, but first I had to put on what I found.

"How do you even have one?" she asked me. "You didn't steal it from my dad's room, did you?"

"What? No." I told her "I found it inside my bag. It was pure luck really."

I placed it back in position and took it slow. I went in a little deeper when I hit her barrier.

"Don't ram it. Just push hard enough to break it but not too hard." She begged me.

I pushed a little harder and I got in a little deeper. I was happy but she yelped in pain when I got through. I stopped for a while to let her get used to it. I started to pump back and forth and she was starting to get used to it. It's amazing that I exactly fit her because when I got to the end I was completely in.

She was starting to speak her own language now. It must be that good because honestly I'm just following what I've seen on the computer. I didn't realize how tight the entrance was until she started to become more excited. I thought I wasn't going to last but I did. It took more excitements to get me off. When both of us were completely exhausted, I got out and notice that it broke but I couldn't concentrate on it and I fell asleep.

I woke up feeling relieved and happy. I felt someone grabbing me. I turned to the other side of the bed and saw Desiree beside me.

"Are we doing it again?" she asked mumbling.

I looked at the clock on her wall. It was 4:30 in the morning, the perfect time for me to get back to my room.

"I should probably get back to my room." I told her but she was still half asleep.

I got out of her bed slowly and started opening her door when she mumbled again. "We should do this more often."

I turn around to see her awake.

"It was fun and thanks for the help." I winked at her.

"You could call us enemies with benefits." She told me. That told me that this definitely will not be the only time we'll be doing this.

I tip-toed, as quietly as possible, back to my room and when I got there I realize that I was still wearing it. I went to the bathroom to clean up. I took it off and I noticed there was a tear at the tip. Then I almost started to panic. If it got ripped then that means I'm going to be a dad in nine months. I prayed to every maternity goddess I knew that that day will never come.

I rested for a few hours. When I heard my door open, I woke up a bit and saw Desiree at my door.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." She apologized.

"It's alright. Why are you here anyway?" I asked her. "Were not doing it again, are we?"

"No, were not doing it again but probably soon." She said. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Did the experience last night change our relationship status?"

"And what status would that be?" I asked her.

"Well unless you want us to stay enemies, which I doubt from what happened last night." She said "I guess that status would be acquaintances."

"Are you saying were starting to become friends?" I told her

"Not technically friends. We're just starting off." she told me "We should get downstairs. There's already breakfast on the table."

She went out of my room and I got ready for the day. I also grabbed the letter my dad wrote, to keep it safe because it's the last thing he ever gave me. When I opened the door she was waiting for me. We went downstairs to their kitchen and I could smell eggs and bacon, a traditional American breakfast. Donny was already there eating.

"We're not going to burn food?" I asked

"Usually in the morning we don't but at camp we do." Donny explained. "So, you guys have fun last night?"

"What are you talking about? I was asleep in my bed." I said defensively.

"I was too. How is sleeping fun?" She also said defensively.

"Well, sleeping could be fun if you're sleeping with somebody else and playing at the same time." Donny expressed.

Des and I just ate our food awkwardly.

"Ha, I knew it. You did do it last night." Donny said like he just solved the world's biggest mystery.

"Okay, yeah we did it." She said annoyed by her brother. "How did you know anyway? Were peeking in my room?"

"Des, my room is right across your." Donny started "I heard breathing and sighing and sometimes yelling and swearing."

"So I had to conclude that you…" he pointed at me "…went to her room and did the business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be next door helping dad fix your house." Then he left.

"Your dad doesn't work on weekends?" I asked her.

"He usually does but I think he called the hospital to tell them he won't be in today." She answered.

"I better get to my house to help." I said while we were eating.

"I don't think that's such a great idea." she suggested "I have a feeling one step inside and you'll start crying like a baby."

"What happened to being acquaintances?" I asked because she kind of insulted me.

"Sorry, old habits die hard." she said to me.

We continued eating, when Oliver came in.

"Hey guys!" he greeted us "What's going on here? A breakfast date?"

"No just breakfast." I told him.

"Well anyway" he continued "with all the commotions yesterday, you forgot your stuff in my car. Where should I place it?"

"Just place it in the living room." Des said pointing to the sofa.

"How did you know where I was?" I asked him.

He came to the table and sat in one of the chairs. "I went to your house first and found her dad fixing the place. It's still a total wreck, buddy."

"I should really help them." I insisted "It's my house."

"No can do man, Dr. Jones specifically told me not to let you come to that house until everything will be back in place." Oliver told me.

Why won't they let me do anything? I thought to myself irritated by the hospitality.

"Fine, if you won't let me do anything, I'll do something else." I told them.

"What kind of something else?" Des asked me.

I pulled the letter out of my pocket. When she saw it, her eyes went wide.

"No, you are not going. It's suicide." She begged me.

"Wants going on? What's that letter?" Oliver asked confused.

I told him it was a letter from my dad and that he was kidnapped by Lamia.

"And she just wants her medallion back?" he asked "That doesn't sound so hard."

"Actually it is." I told him "My dad wrote that he threw it away at the Chelly Canyon in Arizona."

"So you want us to go on a wild goose chase to find this medallion and save your dad?" she told me still not convinced this was a good idea.

"Yup and both of you are going to help me." I said to them.


	13. Things Are Bigger Than We Thought

**DESIREE**

It was kind of funny that Romeo was afraid of this sweet and charming horse. But I know that he knows this horse more than I do. We were riding Arion toward the cliff, where Romeo thinks is the place where his dad threw the medallion away. But it was just a hunch because it was the only cliff we could see in the horizon.

While we were riding Arion, it was nice feelings to have Romeo hug me so tightly. But I know that he was holding me tightly because he does not want to fall off the horse. It still feels nice, like when we sleep together in a bed. I think he likes to hug, cuddle and spoon me a lot, especially when we sleep together.

Arion slowed down his pace and then stopped. Romeo instantly got off him when the horse stopped moving. I followed then Hazel. We walked around the area for a while, kicking stones and touching the ground.

"Can you feel anything Hazel?" Romeo asked holding his stomach, still trying to get rid of the motion sickness.

"I do actually." Hazel said and I smiled. "But it's kind of far."

"Like in the drop?" I asked my smile fading.

We walked toward the edge of the cliff and looked at the drop. The sight was not pretty. It was probably fifty meters from the edge down. There were also very pointy rocks at the bottom, all in different shapes and sizes.

"Yeah I don't want to go down there." Romeo said and we both agreed.

There was a light wind blowing and it was whistling. Then a thought formed inside my head. I walked to the edge of the cliff and started yelling.

"HELLO!" I screamed then my echo replied.

"Why did you scream?" Romeo asked.

"Wait, just listen." I told him.

"HELLO?" I yelled again and just like my dream my echo replied "HI!"

"What the —" Hazel asked but didn't continue her question.

I just smile at myself. I knew that this plan would work.

"Didn't you have a dream like this?" Romeo asked me.

I nodded my head yes and continued shouting. "Are you a nymph?"

The echo replied. "Yes."

"Can you show yourself?"

"Sure."

Then the wind got a little stronger and we saw a young lady flying up from the cliff and landed on the edge. She was medium height, honey colored hair, tan skin, and here irises were white. Her look really blended with the surroundings.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Echo." She said casually.

"You mean Echo like in the story?" Romeo asked.

"Yes but please don't remind me." Echo said. "I still get nightmares from that memory."

"What kind of nymph are you?" Hazel asked.

"Isn't obvious, I'm a mountain nymph." Echo responded.

"Wait." Romeo said "If you're the same Echo in the story, then shouldn't you just repeat the last word of every statement said?"

"A lot of people get that wrong." She said

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"The sound that was named after me repeats your words." She explained.

"So you don't have a curse?" Hazel asked.

"Oh I do, the curse prevents me to say things first." She said. "I'm only allowed to have the last word."

"Oh." Romeo said just going for the explanation.

"I have a question." I said "Is this Chelly Canyon?"

"Why do people always get that wrong?" Echo sighed. "The canyon is called Canyon de Chelly."

"Okay then, I also have a question." Romeo said "Sixteen years ago during night time, did you see anyone standing at the edge of a cliff, muttering to himself and throwing a necklace inside that drop?"

"I did actually, I was about to sleep when I saw a shiny thing falling into the canyon." She said.

"Really?" Des asked "How did it look like."

"Oh I never forgot it, it was just so beautiful." She sighed dreamily at the thought. "It was six times the size of a drachma, the ruby in the middle was really red, and it had a couple of etches of intertwined snakes surrounding it."

"Where is it?" Hazel said "Because I can feel the mineral inside the drop."

"It's still there." Echo said. "I tried to get it the next morning after it fell to have a good look at it. It was pretty but it smelled of blood and I got scared so I left it there."

"Can you get it for us now?" I asked hopefully.

"I can't really remember where it landed." Echo said disappointingly.

"Did any of you brought climbing gear?" Hazel asked us.

"I think I have some in Oliver's backpack." Romeo said taking the bag off his back and pulling out a climbing rope.

"I hope that's more than fifty meters." I said wishfully.

"Okay, I'll propel down there to feel where the medallion is." Hazel explained.

Romeo secured the rope by tying it around a big boulder near the cliff. I helped Hazel get herself ready to go down the cliff.

"Echo can you retrieve the necklace when I tell where it is?" Hazel asked the nymph.

"Oh sure no problem." said the nymph happily.

Hazel slowly let herself down the edge while Romeo was making sure that the rope was not loosening or breaking. Thirty minutes has already passed and I anxiously waited for her to come back up. Then I heard someone yell something.

"I can feel it." The voice was Hazel's "Its right over there between those two really big rocks."

I looked at the edge to see Echo floating toward the two big rocks that Hazel said. The two rocks looked really scary. They kind of looked like bull horns waiting to ram you in the gut. Then I saw the nymph float back to us at the edge. After a few minutes Hazel came back up.

"Did you get it?" I asked Echo.

"Yup." She answered. "Here you go."

She handed the necklace to Romeo. He stared at it for a while rubbing his thumb on the design. Then he stuffed it into his bag.

"Come on, we have to get to New Orleans now." Romeo said a little urgently.

"We're really going there?" Hazel asked smiling.

"Yeah why?" Romeo asked confused.

"I actually used to live there and I haven't been there in a really long time." Hazel said with a glint in her eyes that said she was having a nice memory.

"So you know the oldest tree there right?" I asked her.

"Um… yeah." She said. "It's the Seven Sisters Oak. It's in a city right across a lake from New Orleans. Why?"

"We need wood from the oldest tree in the state to kill Lamia." Romeo explained.

"Then that's no problem then." Hazel said. "I really like those trees. There really is nothing like it."

"Really, how do they look like?" I asked.

"Well imagine a hydra with seven head sprouting from the ground. Now imagine its skin turning to bark while its heads move around in different directions. Then it becomes really still and leaves are growing all over the heads. That's how the tree looks like." She described.

I could see it in my head. I imagined the vicious monster with its everlasting heads, growing out of the ground like a seed sprouting. Then slowly, just like looking straight into Medusa's eyes, it's slowly becoming stiff and bark is starting to form from the neck to the scalp. Then slowly leaves are coming out from each head.

"Wow, that's one awesome tree." Romeo commented.

"I know right." Hazel said.

"Well we better get on Arion then." I said.

Just after I said that, the horse whined.

"What did it say about me now?" Romeo said annoyed.

"He's not talking about you." I told him. "He's just hungry from running."

"Oh, oops must have forgotten to feed him after the trip." Hazel said digging out of her bag gold nuggets and feeding them to the horse.

"That is an expensive horse treat." I said astonished that the horse was eating pure gold.

"You have no idea how hard it is to find more gold just to feed this horse." Hazel said teasing Arion.

After feeding Arion, we thank Echo for helping us and she went back down to her cavern in the drop after wishing us luck in finding Mr. Valentino. All three of us demigods mounted on Arion. Surprisingly, Romeo eagerly rode the horse. Perhaps the idea that we are so close to rescuing his dad made him more confident in riding the horse. After all three of us were set, Arion ran forward as fast as the speed of light.

This horse can really run. If I wasn't holding on to Hazel, I might actually fall off bring Romeo with me. Then both of us would die from the impact, because he was even faster than a bullet train or possibly even fast than the Flash and Superman combined.

It was just around mid-afternoon when we saw the city.

"Welcome to Mandeville, Louisiana." Hazel introduced us to the city.

Hazel slowed down Arion, and he casually walked on the street. We stopped for a while for me and Romeo to get off, but Hazel stayed on. A few people were staring at us or maybe just the horse. After a couple of minutes just leisurely walking on the main street, a policeman came to us.

"Excuse me Miss." He said in a friendly but authoritative tone. "I believe this horse is in the wrong area. Shouldn't you be riding somewhere a little open with a field of grass."

"I'm sorry officer." Hazel apologized. "Sometimes this horse doesn't know who's in charge and makes decisions for himself."

"Well you try to teach him who's in charge then." said the policeman.

Right after he said that, Arion whined and neighed. He actually said that he doesn't need to be taught who's in charge because he is in charged.

The policeman just laughed. "Well I'm sorry to say, pal, that humans dominate horses."

Then the horse huffed in annoyance and all of us laughed.

"Well you kids better get that horse in a stable and get home before dark." said the officer in a warning tone.

"Why?" Romeo asked cautiously.

"Haven't you heard the stories boy?" the officer asked.

Romeo shook his head no.

"What stories?" Hazel asked curiously.

The officer looked left and right and said "Why don't we talk a little privately?"

We walked to a nearby park and headed toward a wooden canopy. When we settled ourselves, the policeman huffed a big sigh and whispered the story to us.

"There's been rumors' going around that there are ugly bat creatures, like ugly-looking vampires, lurking around the city. People keep spreading that their kids were taken by these things. There were a couple of families that moved away because they were too scared of the story." He started.

All three of us all understood what he just said. Lamia's minions were lurking around the city. Possibly looking for prey for their mistress, which I am guessing were little children.

The officer just continued the story. "At first I thought it was just a tall tale. But then the station was getting a lot of reports about a number of missing children. So we did a wide spread search. We even reached New Orleans across the lake. We collaborated with the station there and apparently they've been having the same problem as well. We finally got a lead down by the Mississippi River. A couple of fisher men were trying to catch some catfish when they saw a bunch of things lying on the ground. When they got closer, what they saw was a horrific sight. They saw dead bodies of little children about the ages of four to twelve. If you see these bodied, I advise you to eat nothing before you see them. The bodies were mutilated, like something ate them. We were guessing they were eaten by gators but our forensics guys told us otherwise. The way their bodies were chewed at wasn't the same as a gator bite. They say it looked like it was chewed off by an extremely large human mouth and there were these two puncture wounds on their necks. I know what you're thinking, vampires do not exist but the forensics guys told us that maybe they could be since when we found the kids, there wasn't any blood inside their bodies, not even the slightest, like it was drained out of them before they were eaten."

All three of us were shivering at our imaginations. As a demigod, not only do you have a hyperactive body but also a hyperactive imagination. So when the police officer described the case, all of us were imagining every single detail of the scenes described. My image of it was not pretty and I could tell that both of their expressions that theirs weren't pretty either.

"That's the reason why we're asking people to go home before dark." The officer said. "I know the case just said that kids where the victims but we're taking every precaution that possibly adult might be taken."

"Thanks for the warning officer." I told him.

"It's my pleasure Miss." He said "But I'm sorry if I scared you all."

"It's no problem." Romeo said. "We just want to have a good look at the city. We really want to see your famous Seven Sisters Oak."

"Then by all means, but just make sure to keep your eyes wide open." The officer said then went off to continue his duty.

"Wow, this is bigger than I thought." Romeo said running his hand in his black hair.

"I know." I said exasperated while sitting slumped on the bench of the canopy. "Apparently this quest isn't so personal than we thought. The people in the area are being terrorized by her and we have to do something."

"You are so right." Hazel agreed. "We do have to do something and this is also the state where I was born. We are called heroes after all."

"Let's get some branches from the tree, and then head down to New Orleans." Romeo said and all of us started to walk around the city to find the tree.

Hazel was riding Arion and since she knows the area better, we just practically followed her. We circled the main street and the park but didn't see the tree of Hazel's description. So we tried going a little outside the city center. We looked at every house with a yard. Still nothing.

"Hazel," Romeo said "I thought this tree was popular. How come we haven't seen it yet?"

"I don't know." Hazel replied. "It used to be such a tourist spot back in my day."

"And when was your day?" I asked curiously.

"The last time I remember visiting this place was when I was ten, back in 1938." She said calmly.

Did I hear her right? Did she really just say that she was ten in 1938? That can't be right because she was only a year older than me. How can she still be a teenager if she's supposed to be in her eighties right now?

"How is that possible?" I asked shocked.

"It's a complicated story to explain. I need more time to tell you about it and we don't have that much time." She answered me to my brief disappointment.

"Fine." I said. "But the next time I visit Camp Jupiter, you definitely have to explain." I said rather unsatisfied.

"Deal." She told me.

We were practically outside the city when we finally saw the tree. It really looked like what Hazel described. We were about to run toward it when we realized it was beside a big white classical house. Maybe house is underestimating it. It was too big to be an ordinary house but too small to be a mansion too. So we just decided to call it a small villa because we couldn't come up with another word for it. It was painted white everywhere, even the roof. I was surprised that I can see the outline of the door and windows. It also had two wide Grecian pillars right at the porch. That got me wondering to whoever lives in the house.

Since we desperately needed the wood, we just slowly walked towards it. We were just a couple more meters from the tree when we heard someone talk.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The voice said.

We stopped walking and turned our heads to the direction of the voice. It was coming from an open window that was facing the tree. Inside the window was a woman, possibly in her early thirties, poking her head outside of it. Her straight blond hair seemed to be shining from the hot soon to be setting sun. She was crossing her arms across her chest, waiting for us to explain ourselves.

"Sorry if we're trespassing into your property." Romeo sincerely apologized. "But we really want to see your tree. It's so unique that none of us has ever seen it before."

"You're not from here are you?" she asked us with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"No were not." I told her. "We're just visiting for a few days."

"Come inside." She said and walked away from the window.

Hazel got off Arion and tied his reign on a post, which I hope is strong enough for that spirited creature. All three of us walked to the front door of the villa just as the lady opened the door and gestured us into her home. If the outside was white, the inside was washed of all colors. Even the furniture was white, except for a couple of dark wooden chairs and tables. But it did have a classical feel to it.

The lady brought us to her living room, where she let us sit on cream colored sofas. She sat opposite of us on a lounge chair of the same color.

"I'm Mayor Lyra Harper." Mayor Harper introduced herself. "And what brings you to my humble abode?"

All of us were a little uncomfortable being in the presence of the city's mayor. But she was friendly enough to welcome us into her home. Then again I could be wrong and she's just annoyed that a bunch of teenagers trespassed into her yard and she wanted an answer for our intrusion.

I could tell that she knew how uncomfortable all three of us were. "Are you three hungry?" she asked.

Apparently she wasn't waiting for an answer because she stood up from her seat and walked towards an open door frame, which looked like the entrance to her kitchen.

"I wonder where all her workers are?" Hazel asked when the mayor was out of earshot.

"I know." I acknowledged her. "Shouldn't she have people going around doing things for her like bringing us a small snack like what she's doing right now?"

"I don't know." Romeo answered me. "Maybe she's like a hands-on kind of mayor."

We heard her footsteps coming back. She set a tray on the coffee table in front of us. On the tray was a plate of brownies and three tall glasses of orange juice.

"Now about my question of why you are here?" she asked again.

"My name is Romeo Valentino. These are my friends, Desiree Jones and Hazel Lévesque." Romeo introduced us.

"Lévesque." The mayor said Hazel's last name. "That sounds like a Louisiana name."

"I used to live here actually before I moved away when I was thirteen." Hazel said to the mayor.

"The reason we're here, Mayor Harper, is because we sort of need a couple of branches from your oak tree." Romeo explained to her.

"And why is that?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

While they were having their conversation, I was looking around her house. I notice that there were a lot of intricate carvings on the tables. They were carvings of what I think are laurel leaves. There was also a piece of stone hanging from the fire place that looked like a lyre. Then the most interesting thing I noticed was the painting above the fire place. It was a painting of a young man with blond hair kneeling down on one knee and holding the trunk of a laurel tree. The odd thing was that the tree looked like it was shaped with a body of a woman. I actually know the story behind the painting. It was Apollo making the laurel tree his symbol and the tree used to be one of the women he perused before she turned into a tree, Daphne. Then it struck me, the carvings, the stone, the painting.

"You're a child of Apollo." I blurted out before I could think of anything else to say.


	14. Vite's Wood

**ROMEO**

Then the room suddenly become quite.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Mayor Harper said but I could hear her trying to hide the truth.

"It's okay because I'm a daughter of Aphrodite." Desiree told her.

"What are you doing?" I asked her my grey eyes wide open.

"I'm sorry about her Mayor Harper." Hazel apologized on Desiree's behalf. "She's probably just tired."

"No its fine." The mayor said smiling. "Are you all from Camp Half-Blood?"

My hysterical outburst on Desiree quickly disappeared when we heard the question.

"I am." Des told the mayor. "But these two are from Camp Jupiter. They're Roman demigods. He's the son of Minerva or Athena and she's the daughter of Pluto or Hades."

"Really." She said astonished. "I always knew the Greeks weren't the only ones. You don't mind me asked though Desiree, but you remind me of my cabin counselor back when I was at camp. Do you know a Duane Jones?"

"I do actually. He's my dad." she told her smiling.

"I don't want to disturb this little chitchat but can I explain further why we need the branches." I interrupted because this was getting us nowhere.

"Of course I was wondering the same thing." said Mayor Harper.

"We need it to abolish the problem you have going around the state." I said seriously.

"Oh I see." The mayor said understandingly. "That's technically the reason why I let my staff go home early. I didn't want any of them to go home late with those vicious monsters roaming around the state. I know they've been kidnapping children but I don't want to risk any of my staff members. I think you are my answered prayer. I've been asking the gods for help ever since this started a few months ago and I couldn't even fight these darn things. One because I don't know where to start and two is because I haven't fought in a long time since I entered politics. The only fights I've been in are verbal ones and trust me when I say they could also turn ugly."

"There is actually one more reason why we came here." I said slowly. "It was actually the first reason why I want to kill these monsters. They kidnapped my dad and made him a hostage for their mistress."

"Where do you live exactly?" the mayor asked.

"Both of us live in Boston actually and we don't know how they found out where they lived." Desiree answered the question.

"They traveled that far just to kidnap your father?" the mayor said. "Why would they go to all that trouble just to get him?"

"There's actually a very valid reason." I explained. "On occasions, Lamia — that's the name of the creatures' mistress — would feed on young men. She uses a medallion to mark her victims. My dad was the last one to have the medallion, but he found out she was a monster and threw it away in a canyon."

"Lamia became furious about it and somehow tracked down Mr. Valentino to Boston." Des continued for me. "When she found out it wasn't with him anymore, she kidnapped him and made us find her medallion and give it back to her."

"We also believe that she's hiding somewhere in New Orleans." I said.

"Did you find the medallion?" asked the mayor. "I mean you wouldn't be here if you didn't have it."

"We do have it." I said.

"And all you need left are the wood?" she asked.

All three of us nodded yes.

"Well we need to convince the tree first." She told us.

All of us had a confused look in our faces. Then it hit us, there's a tree nymph living in the tree. She's probably not a very friendly nymph if we have to convince her to give as a few of her branches.

"So how do we convince the tree?" I asked.

"Well she only listens to me first of all." said the mayor. "Though she can be very hard to crack especially if you asked something from her."

"So how?" Hazel asked.

"She loves music." She said. This wasn't very surprising. Many nymphs know how to sing so maybe we could actually convince this one. "That's the reason why she trusts me because I'm a daughter of Apollo and sometimes I bring out my guitar and we sing together outside by my porch."

Des and I smiled at each other because we know we got this in the bag.

"What kind of music does she like?" Des asked.

"Country music but she does have a specific taste for Taylor Swift." The mayor said.

"Where's your guitar because we might actually have a chance to convince her." I said.

"You can sing?" Mayor Harper asked.

"Des and I can. I can also play guitar. I'm not sure with Hazel though." I said.

"Trust me I am no good at singing whatsoever." Hazel said denying herself.

After we discussed a plan, we sprung into action. Mayor Harper brought out her guitar and a tambourine. Des will be singing the song incase the nymph wanted Taylor Swift. I'll play the guitar while Mayor Harper plays the tambourine and Hazel will just be watching.

We went outside and sat on the chairs on the porch. Mayor Harper went to the tree and call for the nymph. When they reached the porch the nymph looked surprised that there were other people and hid behind the mayor. But she just followed the mayor to the porch.

"Vite I'd like to introduce you to my friends." Mayor Harper said. "Its fine, you don't hide from them. They're demigods too."

She slowly revealed herself behind the mayor.

"Hi Vite, I'm Desiree, this is Romeo and Hazel." Des introduced us. "We heard that you like Taylor Swift songs."

Vite smiled and nodded her head yes. She actually looked kind of cute like looking at a cute eight year old girl even though she's like a thousand year old tree and a little too tall to be eight. I wonder if magical creatures age different than humans. Her look even made her cute. Her skin was pale green and her dark brown knee length hair was braided with vines. She was also wearing a sun dress that was made of moss. Her chlorophyll green eyes look so curious and innocent.

"Would you like us to sing a Taylor Swift song for you?" I asked her.

She looked at Mayor Harper for approval and the mayor nodded her head yes. She looked at as and also nodded her head yes.

"Do you know how to play 'Today Was a Fairytale'?" she asked us with a cute soft voice.

"No problem." I assured her.

I started strumming Mayor Harper's guitar and the mayor shook the tambourine. The nymph was grinning wide showing her white teeth. Desiree was tapping her knee with her hand to get the beat and started singing.

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**You were the prince**_

_**I used to be a damsel in distress**_

_**You took me by the hand **_

_**And you pick me up at six**_

_**Today was a fairytale **_

_**Today was a fairytale**___

Vite was swaying to the beat of the music.

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**I wore a dress**_

_**You wore a dark grey t-shirt**_

_**You told me I was pretty **_

_**When I looked like a mess**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**Time slows down**_

_**Whenever you're around**_

_**But can you feel this magic in the air**_

_**It must have been the way you kissed me**_

_**Fell in love when I saw you standing there**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**___

While she was singing the song I couldn't help but look at Desiree. I could also see that she was staring at me too. The same feeling I felt when we sang on stage together came back. I wanted to stop playing and kiss her but I resisted since we needed to get to the nymph's good side. Oh I want to kiss her so much. I wonder — by the way she's looking at me — if she feels the same way as I was. Then I saw it, another twinkle in her eyes. I really just had to smile.

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**You've got a smile**_

_**That takes me to another planet**_

_**Every move we make**_

_**Everything you say is right**_

_**Today was a fairytale**___

At this point of the song, Vite was happily singing along the words of the song. I knew that we got her when she started singing with us.

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**All that I could say**_

_**Is now it's getting so much clearer**_

_**Nothing made sense **_

'_**Til the time I saw your face**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**Time slows down**_

_**Whenever you're around**_

_**Yeah**_

_**But can you feel this magic in the air**_

_**It must have been the way you kissed me**_

_**Fell in love when I saw you standing there**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**___

Vite was really enjoying herself because she was already singing at the top of her lungs. All of us were laughing except for Desiree who was singing, though she was trying to resist it. I thought the nymph was shy and timid but when her confidence showed, she's overly hyper. The worst part was, though she may love music, she in no way knows how to sing. But I won't tell her that.

_**Time slows down **_

_**Whenever you're around**_

_**I can feel my heart**_

_**It's beating in my chest**_

_**Did you feel it?**_

_**I can't put this down**___

By the time we reached the last chorus she stopped singing, my mouth releasing a sigh of relief. She just sat on one of the chair and just peacefully listened.

_**But can you feel this magic in the air**_

_**It must have been the way you kissed me**_

_**Fell in love when I saw you standing there**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**But can you feel this magic in the air **_

_**It must have been the way you kissed me**_

_**Fell in love when I saw you standing there**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**It must have been the way**_

_**Today was a fairytale**_

_**Oh whoa oh whoa yeah**_

_**Oh whoa**_

_**Today was a fairytale**___

When the song finished everyone clapped, the loudest was Vite. She seriously was so childish it was too cute that you have to laugh.

"You guys sound so good!" Vite squealed.

"I honestly have to agree." Mayor Harper said. "I could tell Desiree inherited her singing from her dad, but Romeo how did you learn to play the guitar so well?"

"My dad taught me." I said feeling sad again but I smiled remembering the fun we had when dad taught me how to play.

"Well you can definitely have a few of my branches." Vite said. "I really loved this song and your voice Desiree — oh my gods — you did more than give justice to the song. You set it free. I'll be honored if you use my wood to save your dad, Romeo."

To my surprise this is the most I've ever heard her talk. But Des and I thanked Vite for the wood and for enjoying our performance. We followed Vite to her tree and she snapped a couple of sturdy twigs from the low branches. She made sure when she snapped it, it ends up pointy. She gave them to us and entered her tree while we went back inside the house.

"Why don't you eat before you leave?" Mayor Harper said. "I know this will be a really long night for you."

We all had to agree with the mayor. There is nothing more annoying that battling monster than battling monsters in an empty stomach. We offered to help but the mayor insisted she do all the work, so the three of us just sat down on the dining table across the living room.

"Um… can I ask where your restroom is?" Des asked.

"It's upstairs, first door to the right." The mayor said before entering her kitchen and Des went there. I really wanted to talk to her so I made an excuse to go outside to breathe a little. I ran out of the dining room and followed Desiree to the bathroom but first I had to open and close the front door so that it looked like I went outside. Without knocking, I went into the bathroom. She was done using the toilet because she was already washing your hands.

She had a surprised look on her face. "What are you doing here? We're not doing it again are we because I don't want to do it in this bathroom?"

"Uh… no we're not doing it." I said. "But I saw a bedroom across the hall if you're interested."

She just laughed. "Why are you here?"

"I just wanted to talk about what happened." I said.

"It was great actually. I didn't even know that you knew how to play the guitar. You and Donny would seriously become friends if he knew."

"So… um… did you feel anything when you were singing?"

"I was actually thinking more about of the words."

"What do you mean?"

"Take these line 'Today was a fairytale, I wore a dress, You wore a dark grey t-shirt'."

"Yeah?"

"The first day of school. You were wearing a dark grey t-shirt and I was wearing a dress that day, and it was a fairytale because when we sang that day it was like fairy magic touched us."

"Or your mom or possibly Cupid himself shot arrows up our butts."

"Well there's that too."

"I have to ask, did you see anything in my eyes when you looked at me?"

"I did. I saw another twinkle. Did my eyes twinkle too?"

"They did."

"Does that mean anything to you?"

"It could possibly be a sign."

When I said that, I moved in closer to Desiree. I slowly grabbed her hips and moved my lips close to hers. We were just about to kiss when someone knocked the door. Both of us stared at the door panicking.

"Desiree, are you done in there?" said the voice of Mayor Harper.

I jumped into the shower and covered myself with the curtain and just squatted at the corner near the water handles.

"Yes, I'm done." Des said when I was, hopefully, hidden.

I heard the door open.

"Was someone else here because I could swear I heard you talking with someone?" asked Mayor Harper.

"No, no one was here." Des said defensively. "I was actually talking to myself."

"Well dinner is ready and Hazel is waiting." The mayor said.

"Just Hazel, where's Romeo?" she asked though I know she knew where I was. I guess getting the lead in every school play does come in handy.

"Hazel said he was just outside breathing." said the mayor.

Then I heard the door close. I waited for a few minutes before I got out. I purposely walk to the front door, opened and closed it so I would be inconspicuous. I walked back to the dining area and food was already on the table.

"So nice of you to join us." Des said giving me a little wink.

"I just wanted to have a little extra fresh air before we rescue my dad." I told her winking back.

I was really hungry. After we burned food — which we explained to Hazel — we ate. We had mashed potatoes, fried chicken, corn on a cob, a Greek salad, and for dessert banana cream pie. The mayor was only in the kitchen for a couple of minutes. There is no way she could make all these in that time allotment.

"How on earth did you make these in minutes?" I asked the mayor.

"To be honest the only thing I made was the salad." She said. "We had a little political get together during lunch time and not a lot of people ate. So I reheated the mashed potatoes, chicken and corn. No one ate the pie, so I just saved it. Besides, since I have guests there is no harm in asking them to join me for dinner. Plus it's too much food and I can't eat it all. They might end up spoiled after several days."

After dinner, we cleared the table and headed to the kitchen. Mayor Harper gladly let us help with the dishes. After cleaning the dishes, we got ready for the rescue. My heart was beating really fast from excitement and fear. Excitement to finally rescue my dad and fear because I still don't know what Lamia did to him.

"Is it odd that the sun is just about to set now?" Des ask me.

"Maybe the gods are on our side and trying to help us out by making Apollo slow down the setting of the sun."

"Could be and they should because technically speaking I am practically a god because of my lineage. They should definitely be helping us." she huffed at her statement.

"We should get other sticks from the other trees." I told them. "We need about as many as we need if we have to fend off her minions if they're guarding her lair."

We headed to the different trees around the area. Luckily the trees that we took wood from did not have nymphs residing in them. We finally were ready to go. We headed to Arion. Hazel untied his reign and fed him more gold. All of us mounted him and I wasn't scared because we are this close from saving my dad. I really hope he's still alive. I mean Lamia wouldn't make us go on this wild goose chase if she killed my dad, would she?

Before I could think more, I recoiled backward because the horse was already moving forward. Yet again I find myself holding on to Desiree's waist for dear life. I was annoyed with the horse that I didn't realize that we were running on water. Instead of going around the lake, the horse apparently took a shortcut through the water. This was actually the few things I would admit is cool about this horse. Arion still kept on running passing a city. It was probably New Orleans. I think we're heading to the Mississippi River, where those fishermen found the dead bodies. All of a sudden the horse stopped, making me jerk hard forward. Then it whined.

"Arion said he smells something funny like blood and evil." Des translated.

"Then we're probably close." I said and that's when we saw it.

In the middle of the swamp, there was a huge clearing just filled with grass. A hundred yards away from the trees around it was a huge mansion. Why would there be a mansion in the middle of a swamp? Then we saw ugly vampires patrolling the grass.

"Des I'll take out your other crossbow, the one with the wooden arrows." I told her. "Then you start shooting at the things."

I opened her bag and handed her, her crossbow.

"Arion don't be annoying right now." I told the horse. "I need you to run to each monster and stop for Des to shoot at them then run to another one when it disintegrates. Got it?"

The horse neighed and nodded his head. I just hoped that meant yes because right after I said it, he ran to the nearest one and Des killed it. We kept repeating this until only a few are left, the ones near the house. I was also killing some that were not in Desiree's range with the sword Grover gave me. Man this sword it cool. It really slashes like a real sword. After killing practically all the guards, me, Des and Hazel got off Arion and got to the front steps.

I peeked at one of the windows and I cannot believe my eyes. I saw my dad chained in a golden throne like chair in what I assumed was the parlor. His shirt and pant were dirty and ripped. His suppose to be olive skin became pale as my natural skin. I could also see that he got thinner. If Lamia was suppose to eat my dad, at least feed him. Then I saw the same lady in my dream that gave my dad the medallion. I was looking at Lamia herself, only she was wearing what looked like a black negligee. What she was wearing gave me wrong images of what she will do to my dad before she'll eat him. I looked away from that window and peered at the other one. The lights were on but there was nothing, no guards. It just looked like a study or a small library.

Hazel offered to stand guard outside. I gave the wood I got because the only wood I need are the ones from Vite's tree, though Tsekouri would still be helpful to me to deflect any attacks. Des would be helping me get my dad.

"How many arrows do you have left?" I asked her.

"Just enough if I aim at their hearts." She told me.

We went through the front door expecting to be attacked but nothing happened. We slowly crept through the hallway. We stopped at an open entrance where I guess the parlor would be.

"You know I forgot to tell you something outside." Des whispered to me.

"Tell me now." I whispered back.

"Blaine and Blaire made me a multipurpose watch that can do anything." She said.

"And why are you telling me this?" I asked her confused.

"Because it could make me invisible." She told me.

"Okay how about I keep Lamia busy while you unchain my dad." I told her.

"Yeah sounds good." She said.

"Can I borrow your ring?" I asked her.

"Yeah you might need it more than I do." She said taking off her ring and giving it to me.

She pressed a button on her digital watch and I saw her disappear. Then I felt something touch my cheek. When I touched it, it was wet.

"That was a kiss for luck." whispered invisible Desiree.

Before I would tell Lamia that I'm already here, I heard her talking to my dad and she really did have a French accent.

"You know if your son won't hurry with my medallion, I might want to eat more children." She said.

My dad did not respond.

"To bad I have to eat you." The monster said. "Because you were the best relationship I ever had and your blood also smelled the best too."

That's what sprung me into the room. I twisted Desiree's ring and it morphed into a shield.

"I heard you've been looking for me." I called out into the room.

She turned around and didn't even look surprised.

"Well I see that you are here." She told me. "Now give me my medallion!"

I took the medallion out of my bag and placed it in my front pocket of my pants. "If you want it come and get it."

And that's when she looked at me with pure hatred. She hissed at me, like a real snake hiss, and her body was slowly transforming. Her hands were turning into claws. Her legs were morphing together and started forming snake scales the color of emeralds with a design of a diamond back. At her back, bat wings were slowly sprouting one by one. Her teeth were also becoming razor sharp. After morphing into her hideous self she lunged at me sending both of us into the other room across the hall. But all I can think about is if Desiree got to my dad and is unchaining him. I was trying to keep Lamia's back to face the doorway so she won't see what's going on at the other side. I hope Des does it fast because I don't think I can distract her for long.


	15. Into The Monster's Lair

**DESIREE**

When I saw Romeo and Lamia head toward the other room, I instantly went inside the parlor and slowly tiptoed toward Mr. Valentino. I was right in front of him now. I closely looked at his face and was so worried of how he looked. It was obvious that he hasn't eaten since he was kidnapped. His clothes were torn apart and his skin was deathly pale. I headed to the back of the chair to see the lock of the chain. It was nothing fancy, just an ordinary padlock. I looked around the room to find a key but there was none. I headed back to the chair and slowly whispered to Mr. Valentino's ear.

"Mr. Valentino, it me Desiree." I slowly told him. "I'm here to get you out of this chair."

I heard a soft moan coming from his mouth. I think he was trying to respond. There was one more thing that I didn't tell Romeo. It's actually a family secret but I really had to use it. I snapped my fingers a couple of times and my hands burst into flames. I haven't used this power since I almost burned down a national park when I was a girl scout in the third grade. I can actually control the temperature so I needed it to be hot enough to melt the metal chains quickly. I grabbed the lock and started slowly ripping it out of the chain link. I put out my hands by blowing and waving it around. I carefully took off the chains and help Mr. Valentino to his feet. That's when he started to talk.

"Thank you Desiree." He said in a shaky and hoarse voice.

"You're welcome Mr. Valentino but we need to get you out of here." I told him and we headed toward the front door.

Hazel was just finishing the last of the monsters attacking her when I called her.

"Hazel, take Mr. Valentino back to Mayor Harper's house." I told her.

Hazel mounted Arion and we slowly settle Romeo's dad on the horse on his stomach in front of Hazel. Then they took off. I checked the area for more minions but there were none. I ran back inside to see Romeo's progress. It wasn't very good. Romeo's bag was ripped from his back near the doorway. He was still trying to prevent Lamia from biting his face with my shield and slashed her with his wooden sword. That won't help him at all. He needed the wood from Vite's tree, which was in his bag! I took the bag from the floor. It was a good thing both of them was preoccupied with each other to notice me. I opened it and found the wood at the bottom of his bag. I looked at the wood and was thinking of how to use it. I couldn't just throw it like the last time. It's too small and might just bounce off. Then it hits me, I can't throw it but I can shoot it. I took out my knife and quickly sharpened most of them, then placed it in my crossbow with the empty container. I carefully aimed at the monster and prevented shooting Romeo. I fired the first arrow and it screamed. It turned around and saw me and launched herself toward me. It's a good thing I managed to side step before she could reach me. She crashed in to the chair she chained Mr. Valentino.

"Hey I think you could use some of these." I told Romeo giving him the wood I didn't use. He placed them in his back pockets.

"Thanks." He said "We better get to her before she gets up."

But it was too late. She was already standing up, unless you don't consider a snake tail pushing you up standing. Romeo walked to one side of the room while I turned back invisible and walked to the other side of the room.

"Where is Anthony?" she screeched in her French demonic voice.

"He's a long way from here now." Romeo said.

"No matter." she said in her normal French accent. "You have the medallion now. So I will feed on you."

Then she lunged toward him. But before she could reach him, I made myself visible and shot my arrow at her. As I predicted she screamed and got her hands on my neck. I dropped my crossbow because her hand was blocking my passage for air. I wonder if the oath applies to this situation because as much she's choking me, I do not feel Thanatos anywhere near me. But don't get me wrong I was struggling to breathe.

"Put her down!" Romeo demanded.

"I don't usually do this but I hope your girlfriend will taste good." She said.

Right as she was about to bit my face she stopped and sniffed me. Her monstrous expression turned to disgust. Well I think its disgust or just her face. She threw me hard on the ground and I was unconscious. The next thing I noticed I was staring into Romeo's sparklingly grey eyes.

"Desiree wake up!" he said shaking me. I noticed that I was lying on his lap.

I slowly stirred and moaned "What happened? Where's Lamia?"

"I killed her." Romeo said laughing and crying at the same time. I think it was from relief that I was alive.

"Really?" I asked smiling a little.

"Yeah it's all over." He said. "We rescued my dad and the State of Louisiana can finally come out of their houses at night."

"How did you manage to kill her?" I asked.

"I thought she killed you when she slammed you to the floor." He said. "I got so mad at her that I went into killing machine mode. I can't exactly remember the whole thing. I just knew that when she burst into yellow dust that it was all over. I ran to you trying to wake you up. It took a while but when I heard you moan I knew you were alive. Gods I thought I lost you right there."

That's when our lips collided. Then of all things that could happen, I had a vision. This is also one of the few family secrets I have. Though I don't know why it only happens when I kiss someone. One time when I was thirteen, I was in a party and the hosts made us play 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' though to me it was more like 'Seven Minutes in Tartarus'. I was stuck in a closet with a guy whom I thought was sweet but a little shy. The minute our lips touched, a vision appeared in my head. The guy was actually a real pervert. The vision showed this guy looking at really nasty things in the computer and inappropriately touching female parts. I released my lips and slapped him on the face hard. His face showed bewilderment after I slapped him. I kicked the door open and stormed out the closet to the bathroom to clean my mouth. But the vision I was having right now was about Romeo killing Lamia.

After Lamia slammed me to the ground, I could see Romeo's expression turn to anger, like Ares angry. Instead of the monster attacking Romeo, Romeo attacked Lamia viciously. His attack for avenging me completely surprised Lamia but she was able to deflect Romeo's first attack. They were at it for hours and I was still unconscious. Romeo had really awesome ninja moves because every time Lamia would throw him towards the walls, he would bend his legs and use the wall as a springboard and come back to attack the monster. The last time he used the wall as a springboard, he took one of the sticks from his back pocket and jabbed it through her chest. Then he took another one and jammed it again in the chest for good measure. Lamia screamed like she was being punished in the Fields of Punishment, though she'll go somewhere far worst, Tartarus. Romeo fell to the floor covered in yellow dust. He took in big breathes before he ran to me and cradled me on his lap. Then I opened my eyes and released his lips from mine.

"Wow." was as all Romeo said.

"Come on we should call Hazel to get us." I told him.

When we got out of the house the sun was just rising. It took us all night to destroy these creatures and now the sun welcomes us to a hopeful morning.

"Good morning Apollo." I said to the sun and in response there was one ray of sun light brighter than the others hitting our faces.

"I think he heard you." Romeo told me.

"I think he did." I responded back.

We walked around the house for a while.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Romeo asked me.

"Were looking for a faucet or if we're lucky a hose is attached to it." I told him.

After looking around for like five minutes and we still found nothing. Then we heard something sprout out of the ground. We braced ourselves in case it was another monster, but the only thing that attacked us was the water from the sprinklers.

"Well its better than the hose." I said.

There were several rainbows so I took out one of my two last drachmas and threw it to the nearest rainbow and the coin disappeared.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, Hazel Lévesque, Mayor Harper's house" I chanted and an image of Hazel showed in the sprinkling water.

"That is cool." Romeo said. "Hazel!"

"Oh hey guys." She said. "I'll never get use to Iris Messaging. So what's up and why are you wet?"

"Lamia apparently has a sprinkler system. Can you pick us up at the mansion?" I asked her.

"Oh no problem, see you in a few seconds." She said.

A few seconds was really all she needed because when I waved the message away, a gold specter was coming toward us. That could only mean one thing, Arion. The horse stopped just a foot in front of us.

"I'm guessing since both of you are alive, you killed her?" Hazel asked.

"Is it that obvious?" Romeo joked.

"Come on your dad wants to see you." She told Romeo and we got on Arion and ran off.

Romeo was so excited to see his dad that he didn't care that the horse insulted him, which it did. Arion said what a Daddy's Boy Romeo was but I won't tell him that. We made it back to Mayor Harper's house within seconds. We headed inside leaving Arion near Vite's tree. We followed Hazel upstairs to one of the bedrooms. On the bed laid a sleeping Mr. Valentino, his skin color almost returning to its normal color. Mayor Harper was rubbing a damp cloth on his forehead.

"Hey guys." Mayor greeted us quietly.

"Hey, we got rid of your problem." I said happily.

She stood up from the bed and hugged both of us. "Thank you so much the state will be very grateful even though they won't know about it."

We laughed lightly about that. Then we heard Mr. Valentino stir on the bed. Romeo sat on the bed to talk to his dad.

"Hey dad." Romeo said softly. "How's it going?"

"Well better than those days stuck in that chair." His dad said. He slowly sat up with the help of Romeo. "Thank you so much for saving me. I did tell you that I wasn't forcing you but you came anyway which I am realizing is to terrifying in my part."

"Oh come on dad." Romeo lightly teased. "You know I'd do anything for you."

"Really because I asked you to clean your room several times and it still looked like Hurricane Katrina came through it." Even in his condition Mr. Valentino was still able to make a joke. "How long was I gone?"

"Including today, four days?" Romeo answered.

"Really?" Mr. Valentino said surprised. "It kind of felt like weeks in that chair. It wasn't just an ordinary chair, it was magical. It kind of sucks your life out slowly. The longer you stayed in it; the chance of you living diminishes."

"Then it's a good thing we were able to get you out." I told him smiling.

"Is there a chair like that in the stories?" Romeos dad asked.

"I only know two stories of magical chairs." I said. "There's a story of a Chair of Forgetfulness that Theseus and Pirithous got trapped in. Theseus was rescued by Hercules but Pirithous wasn't so lucky. Then there's a chair built by Hephaestus for Hera. I think that's the chair you were trapped in. I think the reason why you look like you're about to die was because the chair was meant for a god not a mortal."

"That actually makes a lot sense actually." Romeo's dad said. "Well now I'm a lot better thanks to Lyra."

"Well back when I was in Camp Half-Blood, I was always the child of Apollo they call to be the medic of the injured." said the mayor. "It just seems like a natural impulse and I needed to cure you or Romeo would kill me."

"So when can we go home?" Mr. Valentino asked. "You'll probably be up and standing by afternoon. I'll go to the airport to buy your tickets. It's much quicker if I do it because being the mayor does have its advantages."

"Don't buy me a ticket Mayor Harper." said Hazel. "I'll just ride Arion."

After that, Mayor Harper left to by our tickets. I was leaning on the wall in front of the bed. Romeo was talking to his dad. Though they thought their conversation was private, I could actually hear what they were saying.

"So Desiree helped you out huh?" Romeo's dad said.

"Yeah she did." He told him.

"Is anything going on between the two of you?"

"I have to tell you eventually."

"Tell me what?"

"She's carrying my baby."

"Baby? You mean you two… so does that mean I'll be a grandfather?"

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? I always wanted you two to get along. I wouldn't imagine this but at least you don't hate each other anymore."

"Hey guys I'll go outside for a while I need to call my dad." I told them.

I left the room while they kept talking. I went outside and grabbed a hose near Vite's tree. The nymph was sitting at one of her high branches. She waved at me and I waved back. I turned on the hose and blocked the water with my thumb making it misty. I took out my very last drachma and chanted "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, Duane Jones, Elysium Heights, Boston, Massachusetts." An image of my dad showed him eating breakfast with Donny.

"Hey guys." I said casually though I was actually nervous.

"Dad its Desiree." Donny shook dad.

"Des you're alive." Dad said gleefully.

"Why wouldn't I be." I told him.

"Where are you right now?" he asked.

"Mandeville, Louisiana." I told him. "We just rescued Romeo's dad. We'll be flying back home this afternoon, probably around three. So can you pick us up."

"Yeah no problem." he said. "Should I reserve a room for Tony in the hospital?"

"No need. The mayor of the city is your half-sibling actually, her name is Lyra Harper."

"Little Lyra Harper is a mayor now? She was one of our best healers so she took care of Tony well."

"She did, he's almost back to his normal state. I got to go dad I'm losing sun."

"Bye sweetheart I'll see you at three." Then the message disappeared.

Just when I was about to go back inside Mayor Harper came back from buying our tickets.

"Oh Des your outside?" she asked curious.

"I was just IMing my dad." I told her.

"Oh okay then. Here are your tickets. You'll be back in Boston by three-thirty."

"Good because I told my dad to wait at the airport by three."

We went inside the house and headed to Mr. Valentino's room. He was still talking to his son. Hazel stood up from the chair she was sitting on and talked to Mayor Harper.

"Mayor Harper, thank you for everything but I have to go back to Camp Jupiter." She said.

"Hazel it was my pleasure." Mayor Harper said hugging Hazel. "I hope to see you very soon."

"Me too." Hazel said. "Bye Des. Take care of that baby now."

"I will." I said hugging her.

"Bye Romeo." She said rubbing his shoulder. "See you this summer. Get well soon too Mr. Valentino."

"Bye Hazel." Both father and said in unison.

Hazel left the room and by hearing a neigh outside she already left. After a lot of hours waiting, Romeo's dad was in perfect condition and was happily walking around his room. We got our things ready to leave and Mayor Harper drove us to the airport. After a quick security check and waiting in the waiting area we finally got on our plane. A few hours later we finally reached Boston. We got outside the airport and I saw my dad waving at us.

"Dad!" I said running towards him and giving him a huge bear hug.

"Sweetheart." Dad said hugging back. "Do not ever go on a quest without telling me personally ever again, got it?"

"Yes dad." He said and we released each other when our backs were starting to hurt.

Romeo and Mr. Valentino join us after a few minutes.

"Tony, buddy. How are you feeling?" dad asked Mr. Valentino.

"Good you Apollo kids really know what you're doing." Mr. Valentino said.

"If we didn't, our dad might probably disown us." Dad joked. "Come on let's get you home."

We got in the car and headed back home. Home the one place I really like to be right now, where it's safe and monster won't disturb you. While dad and Mr. Valentino were talking, Romeo and I were having a conversation of our own.

"You know the Homecoming Dance is this Saturday." He said.

"Yeah?" I asked innocently.

"Since we were fighting all weekend, why don't we spend our next weekend with a little fun?" he said.

"That sound great. When do you pick me up?"

"How about six?"

"Then it's a date."

We turned right to a very familiar street. It was our street, the street where our houses were. Dad parked the car in our driveway and we walked to Romeo's house with Donny joining us.

"You fixed everything." Romeo said astounded.

"Yeah we did." Donny said. "We kind of had to ask, Blaine, Blaire, and Aunt Brooke to help fix the broken appliances. Also all your torn clothes were repaired by Pré."

"Why don't you rest here for a while and go to our house for dinner?" dad offered and the Valentinos gladly accepted.

So that night Oliver and my whole family came to prepared a sort of "Glad You're Alive" party. We even have a little surprise for Mr. Valentino and we really hope he'll like it. Preston was the chef of the night and everyone else was doing the decorations and the table. Since the dining room table inside was too small, we decided to eat outside.

"Hey Des!" Pré greeted me.

"Hey." I greeted back.

"Do you have a date for this Saturday?" she asked me.

"I do actually." I told her.

"Really? Who is it?" she asked genuinely curious.

"Is is surprising that during the ride from the airport that Romeo asked me out?" I asked her cautiously.

"Not at all actually." She said. "Since you two were on the quest you got to know each other a little bit better."

"More than a little bit actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't tell anyone until I tell them okay?"

"Okay what is it?"

Before I told her I took in a huge breathe. "I'm pregnant."

"What?" she yell but I shushed her.

"Shshshsh… don't tell anyone okay, especially my brother and dad. I want to tell them myself."

"No problem." Then her eyes got even wider. "No wonder you two are too friendly, he's the dad isn't he?"

Sometime I forget that Pré is a daughter of Athena. She's so smart that no one really knows it because of her designing skills.

"Yes he is. Now don't tell anyone got it?" I said to her.

She nodded her head yes. "So do you have a dress for the dance yet?"

I shook my head no. "I was busy with a quest remember."

"No problem because I made one for you. Come on it's in your room."

We walked upstairs to my room. When we got there, I didn't see anything.

"Where is it?" I asked her.

Then she opened a huge pink trunk about my height. Inside was the most beautiful dress I've ever seen her make. She seriously knows me so well. It was colored yellow. There was a black sash around the waist. The skirt was puffy and there were obvious black and white layers under it. The top was heart shaped with thick straps with gold pendants holding it together. There were a few rhinestones on the chest where it forms the curve for the heart. Best part was it was shiny.

"Oh my gods, Pré, its beautiful." I told her.

"All four of us will be here to get ourselves ready. I'll bring the shoes and accessories by then too." She said

We heard greeting downstairs. Romeo and his dad were probably here now.

"Come on let's greet our guests of honor." I told her and we ran downstairs.

I greeted Mr. Valentino with a hug, which he returned. I also greeted Romeo with a hug and without being shy about it; Romeo kissed me on the lips with my whole family watching.

"Okay enough of that you two." said the voice of Gregg.

He released my lips and joined the guys. The girls just gathered around me squealing. We went outside to the backyard and just saw the reaction of Mr. Valentino. His surprise was a visit from his brother Feo.

"Feo is that you?" Romeo's dad said smiling.

"Come here Tony; give your brother a big hug." Feo said.

The two brothers embraced each other with pure happiness. All of us sat down for dinner and dad gave a speech.

"I would like to give a toast to Romeo for bravely rescuing his father from danger. I would also like to give a toast to my daughter who almost gave me a heart attack by going on this quest. This dinner represents hope and life. We are all gathered here with family and friends and without them life would not exist and hope will be but a dream."

My dad ended his speech there and Romeo stood up and gave one of his own.

"Thank you Mr. Jones for that speech. I just want to apologize for dragging your daughter into all this. But I hope that you will accept it by seeing that both our families will be united."

Everyone had a confused look on their face. All I could think about is I know what Romeo is up to.

"Des would you mind telling everyone what I mean. They will find out sooner or later."

I stood up and prepared myself for what I am about to say to my family, to Romeo's family and best friend.

"For the past few days I have gotten to know Romeo better, his family, his camp, who he really is. I guess I just judged him on how he used my hair back in kindergarten. But now that I know him better well I think it's safe to say that I'm carrying his baby right now."

Everyone was silent. I was scared that they would question our actions. Then all of a sudden a bright light flashed in our eyes. All of us averted our eyes. When the light faded, people stood in front of us. There was Lady Minerva/Athena in just her white dress but no armor, Apollo in his surfer's attire, Hermes in his jogging attire, a guy with a leg contraption and a car repairman's uniform, which I think is Hephaestus, a woman in another white dress with intimidating eyes like Reyna's, I think Romeo told me Reyna's mom was Bellona and I think this is the woman, and lastly was a woman with long wavy blond hair and kaleidoscope eyes but she kind of looked like me.

"Mom!" I said running to the woman with blond hair.

"Desiree sweetheart." She said hugging me.

Everyone else stood up and went to their parents but in Mr. Valentino's part going to the woman who gave him his son. Oliver just stood a good distance from them and bowing.

"What are you guys doing here?" Aunt Brooke asked.

"To join the party." Apollo and Hermes said together.

My mother glared at them. "Actually we are here to explain what Desiree just said."

"There has been a prophecy about this for some time now but we had no clue on when it will happen. Though it constantly kept changing but the theme of the prophecy is practically the same." said Lady Athena.

"We thought that it could have happened millennia ago." said Lady Bellona. "But it never did. The odd thing is they're your ancestors."

"What do you mean?" I asked.


	16. I Ask For A Little Help From Her Brother

**ROMEO**

"Here are two of your ancestors back during the Roman empire." Lord Vulcan said. "One was a young general and a son of Mars, the other was a slave girl and a daughter of Iris."

"She kind of worked for the young general and they kind of hooked up." said Apollo. "But he freed her from slavery and the prophecy didn't happen."

"There was another pair during the medieval times in England." Lord Mercury said. "A son of Jupiter and a daughter of Demeter. The son of Jupiter was a knight and he rescued the daughter of Demeter from a bunch of rowdy centaurs. They had a fling but the knight wanted adventure and was not ready to settle down. End of that prophecy."

"There was one more, between the son of Neptune and a daughter of Tyche." Lady Bellona said. "The daughter wasn't very lucky with this one. She was kidnapped by pirates whose captain was the son of Neptune, quite young for a captain too. This really was a case of Stockholm syndrome. But he showed her mercy and set her free. Prophecy wasn't fulfilled."

"Until the two of you." said Lady Venus. "That baby you're carrying and the three others that will come will be part of a new generation. The descendants of the eldest and the youngest will actually be part of abolishing a tyranny in the distant future where we're sad to say we gods cannot control. But we can't tell you that now."

"Would you care to join us for dinner because my food is getting cold?" Preston asked the gods.

"We've got some time to spare." Apollo said and headed towards the table with Mercury.

We burned food and the gods took in a deep breath.

"Mmmm… that never gets old." Lord Mercury said.

After dinner and putting all the dirty dishes in the sink, the cousins were having a performance and they wanted me to join them.

"We just want to have a small presentation before most of you will go home." Desiree said and started the music. The song was very perfect for the occasion about family. It was "Welcome" by Phil Collins, the song from "Brother Bear". Each cousin started and included me from time to time.

_**There's nothing complicated by the way we live**_

_**We're all here for each other happy to give**_

_**Proud of who we are**_

_**Humbled beneath the stars**_

_**We've everything we need, the moon, the sun**_

_**There is more than enough here for everyone**_

_**All we have we share**_

_**And all of us we care**_

_**So come on**_

When we song the chorus, all of us sang in unison.

_**Welcome **__**to**__** our **__**family **__**time**_

_**Welcome **__**to**__** our**__** brotherly**__** time**_

_**We're**__** happy **__**giving **__**and **__**taking**_

_**To**__** the **__**friends**__** we're**__** making**_

_**There's**__** nothing **__**we **__**won't**__**do**_

_**Welcome **__**to**__** family**__** time**_

_**Welcome **__**to **__**our **__**happy **__**to **__**be**__** time**_

_**This **__**is**__** our**__** festival**_

_**You**__** know**__** and**__** best**__** of**__** all**_

_**We're **__**here **__**to**__** share**__** it**__** all**_

They made me sing first in the second verse.

_**There's a bond between us nobody can explain**_

_**It's a celebration of life**_

_**And seeing friends again**_

_**I'll be there for you**_

_**I know you'll be there for me too**_

_**So come on**_

_**Welcome**__** to **__**our **__**family**__** time**_

_**Welcome**__** to**__** our **__**brotherly**__** time**_

_**This **__**is **__**our **__**festival**_

_**You **__**know**__** and**__** best**__** of**__** all**_

_**We're**__** here**__** to **__**share **__**it**__** all**_

I have to say the best part of the song is the bridge.

_**Remembering loved ones departed**_

_**Someone dear to your heart**_

_**Finding love and planning a future**_

_**Telling stories and laughing with friends**_

_**Precious moments you'll never forget**_

In this part of the song, Desiree sang a solo.

_**This has to be the most beautiful**_

_**The most peaceful place I've ever been to**_

_**It's nothing like I've ever seen before**_

_**When I think how far I've come can't believe it**_

_**And yet I see it and then I see family**_

_**I see the way we used to be**_

_**Come on**_

Then finally last chorus.

_**Welcome**__** to**__** our**__** family**__** time**_

_**Welcome **__**to**__** our**__** brotherly**__** time**_

_**We're**__** happy**__** giving**__** and **__**taking**_

_**To**__** the **__**friends **__**we're **__**making**_

_**There's**__** nothing**__** we **__**won't**__**do**_

_**Welcome**__** to **__**family **__**time**_

_**Welcome**__** to**__** our**__** happy**__** to**__** be**__** time**_

_**This**__** is**__** our **__**festival**_

_**You**__** know**__** and**__** best**__** of **__**all**_

_**We're**__** here**__** to**__** share**__** it**_

_**We're **__**here **__**to **__**share **__**it **__**all**_

Then we ended with a bang. We bowed and our audience of friends and family clapped.

"As the god of music I give you an A+++." Apollo said.

"That was a brilliant performance but we all have to go back to Olympus now." said Lady Minerva.

"Mom before you go I have to ask you something." I told my mother.

"What is it Romeo?" she asked.

I pulled out Lamia's medallion from my pocket.

"I see you still have the monster's jewelry." She said noticing what it was.

"I haven't actually fulfilled the prophecy Rachel gave me." I told her. "I was supposed to return what was lost to where it belongs, but I destroyed Lamia before she could have it back."

"Romeo I did tell you that the first guesses are always right but sometime the obvious guess is the wrong answer." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Think you are my son after all." She told me.

I was thinking back at the last line of the prophecy. Then it hits me. "The loved one and the lost thing are the same. I love my dad and he was practically lost because he didn't know where he was. Now he's back in Boston, where he belongs."

My mother nodded her head yes. "Good job."

"Can you place her medallion somewhere she can't find it ever again?" I asked my mother.

"I will only accept it if it is an offering to me." She said.

"It is. Will you take it? Please?" I begged.

"Very well, now everyone cover your eyes. Not you two." She said annoyed by Apollo and Mercury.

The bright light came and all of us mortals covered our eyes. When the light faded the gods were gone.

"Romeo, come here." Dr. Jones told me. I know what he's going to say. He's going to blame me for impregnating his daughter. "So you got my daughter pregnant?"

"I'm so sorry Mr. Jones. I know what I did was wrong…"

"Relax I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?"

"No I always wanted the two of you to date actually but I never thought it will take a baby to do it."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. You two together really look good together. Physically the two of you are completely different. But everything else is practically the same. You both like music. You both love theater. You like to take pictures, Desiree loves to be pictured. Just make sure that when that baby comes you'll be here whenever there's a problem. There are a lot of girls your age that get pregnant and they don't have the father of the child to help them out. I see that a lot in the hospital. So, do me a favor and do not act like a boy who just sleeps with a girl and leaves it at that, got it?"

"Yes sir, I mean Mr. Jones."

"Good."

Then he left me to be with his family. I went to dad who was talking to Uncle Feo.

"So, you baked a bun in Desiree's oven." Uncle Feo teased.

"Can we not discuss this anymore? Desiree is fine with it, I'm fine with. Can everybody else be fine with it?"

"Calm down son." Dad told me. "Maybe the pressure of becoming a dad is getting to you. At least you have a nine month warning. Back when your mom gave you to me, I had no idea what I was doing. But after a month of taking care of you, I got the hang of it. How about we go home, you still have school tomorrow."

We thank the Jones family for the dinner and we went home, me, dad and Uncle Feo. I went to my room and got ready for bed. Then someone yelled outside my window.

"Did you find the family of spiders living under your bed?" the voice said.

"That's not funny." I told Des. "You know how much spiders hate us."

"I hate cockroaches and you still had the nerve to say it to me." She said.

"Well that was before the quest when I thought you were still annoying."

"It's only fair to balance it out."

"True that."

"So see you in homeroom?"

"Yup, see you in every other class except gym."

"You betcha. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

She closed her window and so did I. I lay down on my newly repaired bed and was just thinking. Back in Louisiana I had a talk with my dad when Des left the room. He wanted me to ask her out and officially make her my girlfriend. I think she thinks were going out, but I don't really know. We both like music so maybe I could serenade her and officially ask her to be mine. I think she would like that. I think I also need help from her brother. I'll ask him tomorrow at gym. After thinking of a partial plan, I went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning better than usual. I didn't have any vivid dreams, which I was happy about. I got ready for school and went downstairs. I was welcomed by the smell of fresh bread when I entered the kitchen.

"Mmm… that smells good." I told Uncle Feo who was covered in flour.

"Thank you I've been up since three to start this." He said.

Dad walked in and had a look of hunger in his face. "Feo you've outdone yourself."

"I felt sorry for your oven that hasn't been used in a while." My uncle said.

"Well I'm hungry. Who wants to dig in with me?" I said and we sat down to eat breakfast on the small table.

There was a basket full of different kinds of bread at the center of the table, though there were more on the kitchen islet. My uncle even made Lattes for all three of us. I dipped some of my bread into my coffee. After finishing half the basket, I drank the rest of my coffee.

Dad was driving me to school today. When we got there I met up with Oliver at the door.

"Hey man." I greeted him. "You mind meeting me in the auditorium after school?"

"No why?" he asked.

"I'll tell you when I get there." Then I ran off to homeroom.

When I got to my room, Des was already at her seat. She smiled at me and gestured to my seat beside hers.

"Good morning." She greeted me, and then she sniffed my shirt. "Why do you smell like bread?"

"Uncle Feo baked bread for breakfast this morning."

Then Mr. Harding came in and started his class. The rest of the day just went normally. I was actually just waiting for gym, the only class me and Des aren't classmates in. We had cross-country so we had to get dress in our uniforms and head to the track. I saw Donny stretching and joined him.

"Hey Donny." I greeted him.

"Oh, hey Romeo." He greeted back.

"You mind if I ask you something?" I asked.

"No, what's up?" he said.

"Can you go to the auditorium after school and can you bring your cousins, just the guys?" I asked him.

"Yeah sure no problem." he confirmed. "Why?"

"It just involves your sister." I told him. "Oh by the way can you not tell her and can you tell her to go home ahead of something?"

"Okay if you want." He said. "But don't we have rehearsals of something?"

"No I asked Mr. Harding." I told him. "So the auditorium is free until Friday."

"Oh okay. So I'll try to tell Des to go home ahead." He said.

"Okay. Thanks man." I thanked him and started running when the coach blow on his whistle.

My last class of the day was science with Desiree. We did an experiment that that made like a rainbow effect when you mix a bunch of chemicals correctly, if not well you've seen nuclear explosions right? Then the bell rang that school was over, we packed our things and left the room.

"So do you want to hang out at my house?" she asked me. "Donny's busy and we don't have rehearsals. So the house is empty."

"I'm sorry Des but I have to stay in the library to study." I lied which I didn't like. "I've been having really bad scores lately and my dad wants me to improve. This might happen for the whole week. But don't worry I'll make it up to you this weekend at the Homecoming Dance, okay?"

"Okay, I'll just go home then." She said disappointingly but she smiled.

She walked down the hall and when she disappeared toward the next hall, I ran towards the auditorium on the opposite direction. When I got there, five guys were waiting for me, Donny, Desiree's brother, her cousins, Blaine, Gregg, and Preston, and Oliver.

"Hey it's the man of the hour." called Blaine. "So what you rally us for? Are we starting an uprising against the school?"

"What?" I said confused. "No actually I called all five of you to help me out."

"Help you with what?" Gregg asked.

"I'm going to ask Desiree to be my girlfriend." I told them.

"Wait I thought you were going out?" asked Preston. "I mean you got her pregnant already."

"Well I think she thinks were going out but I haven't actually asked her to be my girlfriend." I said.

"So you just want to make it official?" Donny asked.

I nodded my head yes. "That's where you guys get involved. I want to ask her out by serenading her."

"Perfect plan buddy." Oliver said giving me a thumbs up.

"What song are you going to sing to her?" Donny asked. "Because I know my sister. She doesn't like traditional love songs, she likes then to be a little spontaneous or she wants the guy to sing some of her favorite songs."

"Well since you've known her for fifteen years what do you suggest?" I asked Donny.

"I might have the right one." He said rubbing his chin. "She does love her BTR."


	17. I Love BTR

**DESIREE**

The next few days were a little lonely. Romeo was studying to get his grades up. Donny was busy with the gods know what. So I spent my time with the girls. After school that Friday, we headed to the mall. We went to that coffee shop that Apollo gave me my prophecy. He wasn't working here now though, it was a girl with brown hair and glasses.

"So how are you and Romeo?" Blaire asked.

"I haven't really talked to him all week except in class." I said sadly.

"Why do you think that is?" Grace asked concerned for me.

"He said he needed to study in the library because his scores were going down." I said still a little glum.

"Well he better get his grades up quick." said Pré. "He can't leave his girlfriend sad like this."

Hearing Pré say girlfriend got me thinking. He hasn't actually asked me out. I think my actions just made it implied.

"He actually never official made me his girlfriend." I told them.

"What?" Blaire asked shocked. "I thought he asked you out to the Homecoming Dance?"

"He did as a date not as his girlfriend." I said my feeling of sadness getting worst.

"Oh honey." Pré said sympathizing me. "No wonder you're so down. It's because he hasn't asked you yet. And it's possibly also the hormones."

"Maybe you're right." I assured her. "Maybe I'm sad because he didn't ask me out and the hormones combined."

"Not to be a pervert and all." Grace said. "But how did that little bundle of joy happen?"

"Oddly enough I've only been pregnant for just a week." I told them. "We did it right after we found out his house was trashed. I invited him to stay at our house until his house was fixed. I was about to sleep when he entered my room only wearing a pajama bottom. He actually has a term for making me know he wants to do it. He says he wants a stress reliever and that's when I know."

"How many times have you actually done it?" Blaire asked curiously.

"Just twice." I said. "Once during that night and second was when we stayed at Hermes' inn for the night before we went to Chicago."

After an odd conversation about my time in bed with Romeo, we went home. Aunt Brooke drove us home after she clocked out from her job. I came home and dad was there but no Donny.

"Hey dad." I greeted my father who was in the living room watching the news. "Where's Donny?"

"He said he'll be staying at a friend's house for the night." He said.

"Have you made dinner yet?" I asked because I was getting a little hungry.

"Not yet." He said. "Actually I just came home a few minutes before you arrived."

Just then the door bell rang. I went to the door to open it. Standing in front of our door was Feo.

"Feo how are you?" I asked.

"Very good actually." He said. "Actually I've been in cooking mode since I've been here. Tony said we had too much food already that I should give some to the neighbors."

This is when I realized he was holding a platter with a whole pizza on it. It obviously still hot from the steam it was producing. He was also caring a basket filled with different kinds of bread. There was also a container in the basket. Inside the container I assumed was pasta.

"Feo, good to see." Dad said to Feo. "Are you running a 'Meals on Wheels' truck of something?"

"No, no just being neighborly and giving out free food." Feo said. "Actually I'll be going back to Chicago tomorrow. I still have a business to run there you know. So this is just a friendly gesture to saying thank you for all the things you've done for me. If you and Romeo didn't come to Chicago, I would have never known what was going on with my brother's life. You two are really meant for each other."

"Thank you for the food Feo." I took the food from his hands with the help of dad. "We'll really miss you here."

We said our goodbyes and Feo went back to Romeo's house. Now if only Feo could tell his nephew what he just said to me and tell him to make me his girlfriend already. Dad and I had a wonderful dinner. Feo was an amazing cook. Even though he was a son of a war goddess, he really knows his way around the oven. I was really full after having my third slice of pizza. For a very small thing inside me, it really wants me to stuff myself. I was also getting tired. I said good night to my dad and headed to my room. I was still a little full and I didn't want to sleep with a full belly. So I took a shower. While I was in the shower, I was thinking of how quiet my house was. Donny wasn't here practicing with his electric guitar, so it kind of made me feel lonely again. I dried myself and changed inside my room. I looked out my window to see if Romeo was in his room. His window was wide open and his curtains weren't closed, so I could see clearly into his room, but he wasn't there. I really haven't felt this lonely ever. The fullness in my stomach subsided and I went to sleep.

I woke up to my brother yelling from my door.

"Can you please stop shouting I'm trying to sleep?" I told him.

"Come on sis." He said jumping onto my bed. "It's Saturday. The dance is tonight. Aren't you going to do those girl ritual things?"

"You should probably know me more than to follow the status quo." I told him sitting up and pushing him away from my bed.

"You know I'm just teasing you." He told me and left my room.

I ate breakfast downstairs. I ate four rolls that Feo made and they were delicious. This baby really wants me eat a lot. I just stalled by watching TV until noon then ate lunch. By two o'clock, the girls came in the house caring their dresses. Pré was making Preston help bring in a white and pink Louis Vuitton trunk.

"Well here is your girl's jewelry." Preston said leaving the trunk in my room. "Now I'm leaving."

"Bye Preston." Pré said to her brother. "And thank you. Okay girls, let's beautify ourselves."

We went to my room and started to do each other's hair. After putting our hair up, we did our make-up. You may think that this doesn't take long, but you are sadly mistaken. One girl doing her hair and make-up takes a while but four girls would take a few hours. All of us were wearing our signature colors. I was in the lovely yellow dress Pré designed for me with big teardrop-shape topaz earrings hanging from my ears, and an intricate topaz and citrine chocker necklace around my neck. My shoes were gold pumps covered in yellow rhinestones and glitter. Blaire was wearing a royal blue knee length dress. It was strapless with a hard top that fits her torso perfectly, her skirt just very flowy and elegant. It was shiny too with rhinestones hidden in certain cresses so every time she moves, it sparkles. She was wearing sapphire jewelry all over, her earrings, necklace, and bracelet. Her shoes were silver pumps glittering with blue. Grace was wearing an emerald off-the-shoulder still knee length dress, with the rhinestones lining her waist in a belt-like formation. It kind of looked like just one piece of cloth that Pré wrapped around her mannequin to make her unique yet styles fashion. Her jewelry consists of an emerald ring, silver hoop earrings and a huge emerald and obsidian pendant necklace. Her shoes were black satin high heels, the sole was green as a leprechaun's hat. Our designer, Pré, was still wearing a knee length one-shoulder tight red dress with a black sash covered in onyx wrapped around the waist. The shoulder that supported her dress was decorated with a ruby encrusted brooch of a blossomed rose. She was also wearing simple ruby dangle earrings. Her shoes were as red as the dress she was wearing.

By the time we put on our dresses, shoes, and accessories. We only had fifteen minutes left before Romeo would pick me up.

"When do your dates pick you up?"

"The dance is technically in full swing right now." Grace said. "But they'll pick us up around six-thirty to seven."

I heard dad yell "Desiree, Romeo's here!"

"I got to go now." I told the girls and left my room to meet my date.

When I got downstairs Romeo was waiting by the doorway. When he saw me his bright grey eyes lit up.

"Wow Des you look amazing." He complimented me.

"Well you're also looking sharp Mr. Double-O Seven." I said joking but admiring his classical black tuxedo.

"Please call me Bond, James Bond." He said going along with my joke using a fake British accent.

He opened the door and gestured me to go outside first. We were going to ride his car to the dance. Our chauffer was his dad. He opened the car door for me and I entered then he closed it when I was completely in. He went behind the car and entered through the other door.

"Good evening." greeted our chauffer/Romeo's dad. "And where may I take the young couple tonight."

"To Sir Alexander's School for Secondary Learning my good man." Romeo said to his father still sticking with the British accent. "We were invited to a ball where Home would be coming."

"Ah, very well then." His dad replied also using the same accent and we drove off to school.

I laughed at their little antic. The two of us were talking at the back of his car when we saw the school in view. His dad dropped us off at the front steps where people were going in. We said goodbye to Mr. Valentino and thanked him for the ride. We went through the front steps and walked through the halls and headed toward the gym. Along our walk going to the gym Romeo was quite the gentleman, opening the door, guiding me while I held his left arm.

When we entered the gym doors, the party was really in hype. The theme was "Mardi Gras" which I thought was funny since we were in Louisiana last weekend. A guy in a mask danced around us and I had to laugh. The place was so much fun. Romeo and I danced to the upbeat song that was playing. We were dancing for a while until I got tired. We sat at a table that was aligned to the center of the dance for to the center of the stage.

"That was so much fun." I told him. "I really needed this."

"Well the night might just get even better. I'll be right back." He said then left me at the table.

I traced him with my eyes and he was heading on stage.

"Cool party right?" Blaire asked while the other girls joined me at the table.

"What's Romeo doing on stage?" Pré asked.

"I don't know." I told them.

Then I saw my brother and my guy cousin on stage to.

"What is going on?" I asked to particularly no one.

The band stopped playing and Romeo spoke in the mic. "Can everyone please clear the dance floor. There will be a very special presentation about to happen."

Everyone cleared the floor anxious to know what the performance was. Then the band started playing "I Know You Know" by Big Time Rush. Oh my gods I love this song. What surprised me more was who sang it. It was Romeo backed-up by my brother and cousins. I could also see Oliver videotaping it.

_**Maybe this could be the line**_

_**That starts the whole story**_

_**Maybe you could be the one**_

_**The one who's meant for me**_

_**I know that I should wait**_

_**But what if you're my soul mate?**_

_**Slow down**_

_**Then you say **_

_**Slow down**_

_**But we can**_

By the chorus all the boys sang together.

_**We**__** can**_

_**Party **__**like**__** a**__** weekend**_

_**You **__**got**__** me **__**thinking**_

_**We **__**could**__** be **__**a**__** thing**__** yeah**_

_**I **__**know**__** you **__**know**__** I **__**got**_

_**Your **__**heart**__** thumping**_

_**I **__**know**__** you**__** know**__** we**__**know**_

_**We**__** got **__**something**_

_**We**__** could**_

_**Be **__**on**__**to **__**something**__** so**__** good**_

_**Tell**__** me**__** that**__** your **__**mine**_

_**I**__** know **__**you **__**know**_

_**You **__**got**__** my**__** heart**__** thumping**_

_**I**__** know**__** you **__**know**__** we **__**know**_

_**We**__** got **__**something**_

Just before he sang the next verse, a spotlight hits me. Romeo came and started sing and walking towards me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the center of the dance floor while my family was dancing around him. He gazed into my eyes, filling me with the words of his song.

_**You know this ain't me at all**_

_**I'm usually lost for words**_

_**You know I can't help but fall**_

_**I've never felt so sure**_

_**Got me in a hurry**_

_**But you don't got to worry**_

_**I'll slow down**_

_**When you say **_

_**slow down**_

_**But we can**_

All together again the, the boys sang the chorus.

_**We **__**can**_

_**Party **__**like **__**a**__** weekend**_

_**You**__** got **__**me**__** thinking**_

_**We **__**could**__** be**__** a**__** thing**__** yeah**_

_**I**__** know**__** you **__**know **__**I**__** got**_

_**Your**__** heart**__** thumping**_

_**I**__** know **__**you **__**know **__**we**__** know**_

_**We **__**got **__**something**_

_**We**__** could**_

_**Be**__** on**__**to **__**something**__** so **__**good**_

_**Tell**__** me**__** that**__** your**__** mine**_

_**I **__**know **__**you **__**know**_

_**You **__**got **__**my**__** heart **__**thumping**_

_**I**__** know **__**you**__** know **__**we **__**know**_

_**We**__** got**__** something**_

_**Right**_

_**We're**__** two **__**of **__**a **__**kind**_

_**So**__**let's**__**party**__**like**__**its**__**'99**_

_**I **__**know**__** you**__** know**__** I **__**got**_

_**Your **__**heart **__**thumping**_

_**I**__** know **__**you**__** know **__**we**__** know**_

_**We**__** got**__** something**_

Before they finished the second chorus, Donny gave me a mic to sing the next part.

_**Hey baby**_

_**You drive me crazy**_

_**It ain't about what you done for me lately**_

_**It's all about you no lie it's the truth**_

_**Just wanna say I've got a big time crush on you**_

_**I know you know **_

_**We could be something**_

_**I know you know**_

_**We got something**_

I was really enjoying myself when the boys surrounded me. Romeo and I were still gazing into each other's eyes.

_**We**__** can**_

_**Party **__**like**__** a **__**weekend**_

_**You**__** got **__**me**__** thinking**_

_**We **__**could**__** be**__**a**__**thing**__** yeah**_

_**I**__** know **__**you **__**know**__** I**__** got**_

_**Your**__** heart**__** thumping**_

_**I**__** know**__** you **__**know **__**we **__**know**_

_**We**__** got**__** something**_

_**We**__** could**_

_**Be**__** on**__**to**__** something**__** so **__**good**_

_**Tell**__** me**__** that**__** your **__**mine**_

_**I **__**know **__**you **__**know**_

_**You**__** got**__** my**__** heart**__** thumping**_

_**I **__**know **__**you**__** know **__**we **__**know**_

_**We**__** got **__**something**_

_**Right**_

_**We're **__**two**__** of**__** a **__**kind**_

_**So**__**let's**__**party**__**like**__**its**__**'99**_

_**I **__**know **__**you**__** know**__**I **__**got**_

_**Your **__**heart **__**thumping**_

_**I **__**know**__** you **__**know **__**we**__** know**_

_**We**__** got**__** something**_

After the song ended, Romeo took me by the hand and said "Desiree Juliet Jones, will you be my girlfriend and will you make me your boyfriend?"

"Yes I will." I said crying and laughing. I hugged him so tightly on the neck I think I suffocated him. I wanted to kiss him but the teacher chaperoning might make us stop. The people in the party clapped and hollered for us. We walked back to the table where my family gathered hand in hand.

"It's official." Romeo said.

"Well you're practically part of the family now." Donny said.

"I almost forgot." He we ran back on stage and grabbed the mic. "How about we bring back the party?"

Everybody screamed yes and the DJ started playing a track what sounded like Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night".

All of us had a blast singing and dancing. After a week of school, killing monster, and saving my, possibly, future father-in-law, and traveling the country, this really is the perfect way to end it all. Especially now that the guy I once hated, is now the guys I will absolutely love forever.


End file.
